THE

COLLEGE
HILL

THE BROWN/RISD WEEKLY | SEPTEMBER 16 2010 | VOLUME XXI ISSUE II

3 A MEMBER OF LFO IS DEAD
6 UNEMPLOYMENT AND ACTIVISM
8 TRAPPED IN A MINE IN CHILE: MEDIA SPECTACLE
1 6 GELATO: YOU CAN’T SPELL ‘PROVIDENCE’ WITHOUT ‘VENICE’

“When there is no hope, there is always

the military.”
-p 15
 The
College
Hill Independent
contents from the editors
NEWS In Tuesday’s Providence Democratic Mayoral Election, political newcomer Angel Tavares soundly defeated
two well-established Federal Hill bosses, John Lombardi and Steven Costantino. Most pundits correctly pre-
2 Week in Review (Whitford & Strait) dicted that Lombardi and Costantino would split votes among their Democractic base. They did, but all their
votes combined couldn’t have beaten Tavares, who won 49% of the vote. He did so thanks to a new, rapidly
3 Bye, LFO Dude (Landon)
growing Catholic base dominated by the Hispanic population which makes up nearly 40% of Providence.
The state’s old-school politicians are fading fast. Last February, US Representative Patrick Kennedy an-
METRO nounced he would not seek reelection. Bill Lynch, one of the candidates running for Kennedy’s seat, finished
5 RI Pigs n’ Chickens (Rausnitz & Peterson-Rockney) last in Tuesday’s primary. Lynch, whose father was Mayor of Pawtucket, has chaired the state Democratic
6 Unemployed and Active (A. Warner) Party for the last 12 years. His brother Patrick Lynch B’87, meanwhile, will step down as Attorney General
in January, and dropped out of the Governor’s race this summer to avoid “injuring” the party with a bit-
ter Democratic primary against State Treasurer Frank Caprio. The Lynches, once proud ambassadors of the
SCIENCE Blackstone Valley political establishment, will now both return to private legal practice.
7 A Final Dignity (Delaney) In 2006, the Boston Phoenix identified the arrival of a new first family of Rhode Island Democrats in a
piece called “Caprios on the Rise.” But on Tuesday, Democratic State Senator David Caprio lost the primary
to relative unknown Teresa Tanzi, who attacked Caprio for losing touch with his community.
FEATURES So it’s all up to brother Frank to take the Governorship and redeem the Democratic old-guard. If he
8 Trapped Miners in the Limelight (Welsh) doesn’t, nostalgics need not fret. His strongest challenger is Lincoln Chafee B’75, the former Republican US
9 q: Where do Malls go when they Die? a: Warwick Senator whose family name runs 125 years deep in Rhode Island politics. –SVZW
(Hines) -SVZW
In a sense, we seniors epitomize adult human beings who are free to have all the food and sex we want. Our
conversation focuses on the outcome of last week’s Top Chef finale (Hosea? Really?) and upon the phenom-
ARTS enon of the senior scramble—a steroidal interpretation of the laissez-faire attitude towards sex enjoyed by
4 The Future of Digital Music (Morley) many Brown students, a clearance sale of hook-ups.
11 HOROSCOPES!!! (Jones) F A L L 2010
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SENIOR EDITORS Margo Irvin, Simone Landon, Erin Schikowski, Emily Segal, Dayna Tortorici
FOOD
16 Gelato is delicious. Seriously. (Cushing) MVP: Jonah Kagan
COVER ART: Nick Carter Too Much Too Soon
LITERARY
17 Marionettes Hang out Forever (Hsiung) The College Hill Independent
PO Box 1930
Brown University
X Providence, RI 02912
18 (Gui) theindy@gmail.com

Letters to the editor are welcome distractions. The College Hill

Independent is published weekly during the fall and spring
semesters and is printed by TCI Press in Seekonk, MA.

The College Hill Independent receives support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress.

as if you care... ephemera

I got your messages on my cell phone yesterday while I was at the library bor-
rowing books on chess, and listened to the “Springtime” mix you made me on
the bike ride home; I missed you a lot right then. Columbia is weird as usual.
Last night, Kevin, Julian, and I were invited to watch an illegal deathmatch be-
tween a cat and a parrot to take place at the pet store in the mall after it closed.
Apparently, mall security got wind of the debacle and the whole affair was called
off. However, the prospect of this fight was enough to make my evening feel
pretty insane. I’m starting to have trouble with the idea that I have a little more
than one week left here in sunny, downtown Columbia.
THEINDY.ORG 2
News

W  R
by Ashton Strait and Emma Whitford
Illustration by Manvir Singh

C E L LO S , C I T R U S , E X P LO S I O N S
Last Friday, sixty-two year old Michael Edwards of the Electric Light Orchestra was driving his minivan on
the A381 in England. According to police reports, a 1,300-pound bale of hay rolled down the adjacent slope
and flipped 15 feet over a hedge, striking the roof of his van. Edwards swerved into oncoming traffic and hit
another vehicle. The other driver was not harmed, but Edwards died on impact.
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) was a British band popular in the late ’70s and early ’80s that gave
rock a classical bent with strings, horns and woodwinds. Its first hit single was “10538 Overture”—a song
with layers of overdubbed cello riffs about an escaped prisoner called 10538. Edwards played cello for ELO,
and was known for his tendency to trade in his bow for a grapefruit during concerts (a stunt that probably
wouldn’t have gone over well at the Royal Academy of Music where he was trained).
A -­ P L U S C U P S ?
ELO had 27 Top 40 singles between 1972 and 1986. However, Edwards left the band in 1975 just as it was
National underwear day was August 5, but it seems
hitting its stride. He turned from psychedelic rock to baroque orchestration, founding the Devon Baroque
the nation’s obsession with undergarments has
Orchestra in Devon, England. Edwards had been slotted to perform with The Daughters of Elvin, a medieval
experienced an interesting uplift in certain areas.
folk band, in Totnes this Saturday night.
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The police who responded to the scene identified Edwards as a former ELO member using band photos
with its influx of tall, thin, flat-as-an-ironing-board
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models, new online retailers have started catering to
man responsible for the ‘Dying Swan’—a performance piece from the ELO days that concluded with an ex-
those with, shall we say, smaller mammary endow-
ploding cello. –EW
ments.
In the past few months there has also been a re-
surgence of pride among small-breasted women.
Blogs like smallbustbigheart.com and the “small

Our
breast support group” on the bust.com forum are
popping up weekly, created by women looking to
empower themselves by sharing wisdom, advice,
and anecdotes about their “booblets.”
Welcome to 21st century feminism. The “small
breast support group” is chock full of women al-
ternately crowing and lamenting about their “little
ones” and “teensy tatas.” Certainly the most en-
MA & PhD
tertaining part of the support group has to be the

Programs
one male contributor, who goes by the screen name
just_a_guy and describes himself as an “ardent
feminist” while comparing small-breasted women to
sports cars and making comments like, “I love a lithe
little package 5’2” with A cups and 95 pounds soak-

focus on
ing wet.” Charming.
Of course what these websites fail to do in the
midst of their lingerie reviews and me-thinks-the-la-
dy-doth-protest-too-much small breast pride posts,
is actually address the pertinent issue. Any feminist
worth her salt would tell you it’s probably unwise to
nurse our cultural obsession with breasts. That said,
it’s difficult to fight oppressive beauty standards
the cultural
when you’re 95 pounds and soaking wet. –AS

P O U R A R O U N D FO R M OT H E R R U S S I A
The Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has
history of
come up with a unique strategy to pull his coun-

the material
try out of an economic quagmire: feeding off of his
countrymen’s vices. A new tax on cigarettes was
passed by the Parliament in June that will raise the
government profit on 1000 cigarettes to $19.20
from $11.39 by 2013, at which time an alcohol tax

world.
increase is predicted to raise the price of a liter of
the cheapest vodka from $2.81 to $4.71. Open House
“Those who drink, those who smoke are doing
more to help the state,” Kudrin stated in an inter- Dates
view with Interfax News Agency. October 18, 6pm Application
Not everyone is on board with the new policy. November 14, 11am Deadlines
December 5, 11am
:VSJ
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For full-time and
last month to prohibit the sale of liquor between RSVP part-time students
the deadline is
Upcoming
10 PM and 10 AM in an effort to cut consumption BGC Academic Programs
by 50 percent. The worst part of this policy is of
38 West 86th Street January 3, 2011. Exhibitions
New York, NY 10024 BGC Galleries
course that the most popular anodyne to personal T 212 501 3019 Fellowships and 18 West 86th Street
economic woes will now contribute to those woes, F 212 501 3065 scholarships are New York, NY 10024
and won’t even be easily accessible. These laws lend E admissions@bgc.bard.edu available for T 212 501 3074
some truth to that old joke: in Mother Russia, the W bgc.bard.edu/admissions qualified students. W bgc.bard.edu/gallery

cigarettes smoke you. –AS

 3 S E P T E M B E R 1 6 2 0 1 0 T H E CO L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
News

theindy/
things we like on the web* E  R
by Simone Landon
gaza’s 1st Ƃ truck driver
/1 @ma’an news
[To the tune of LFO.’s “Summer Girls”]

/2 ephemera I think it’s sad when former boy band members die…
Do you remember LFO, and that summer…that summer?

bolivia’s mennonites
theindy.org/3 @burn magazine
Hair gel and long sleeve tees, your name was Rich
Leukemia made you sick
I don’t know why you had to die, what a bummer, what a bummer
I don’t know if you ever saw Lilo and Stitch
/4 redesigning the dollar
@dowling dollar
But you had a good handle on 90s kitsch
:PVS
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@cocaineblunts
Big Willie Style, you always kept it jiggy
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/6 muslim grrrls
@guernica
Grew up in Kingston (MA), into hip-hop
Shari Lewis was the voice of Lamb Chop
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In England, William Pitt opposed the Whigs
/7 vintage mobile cinema
@bldgblog
Everyone loved the way “Summer Girls” rhymed
But my favorite song was “Every Other Time”
Who were those other guys? Devin and Brad?

/8 show me your papers They couldn’t match the charisma you had
@counterpunch Johnny Cash was the man in black
:PVWF
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I like Harry Potter but I hate quidditch
*to access /3, go to theindy.org/3
One thing I know is I’ll always miss you, Rich

Hair gel and long sleeve tees, your name was Rich
Leukemia made you sick
I don’t know why you had to die, what a bummer, what a bummer
I don’t know if you ever saw Lilo and Stitch
But you had a good handle on 90s kitsch
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The Dallas Cowboys are America’s Team

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your art desires. In it, you even copped to being cheesy

But you shouldn’t worry about your reputation
They still listen to LFO on the space station
All the brands you know I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds right
and trust under one roof. Do you think Pat Sajak ever boned Vanna White?
:PV
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go to michaels.com to find a store Now there’s a hole in my heart where you once stood
near you and sign up to receive
special offers and coupons I like Harry Potter but I hate quidditch
One thing I know is I’ll always miss you, Rich

Hair gel and long sleeve tees, your name was Rich
Leukemia made you sick
MAKE YOUR OWN SALE MAKE YOUR OWN SALE I don’t know why you had to die, what a bummer, what a bummer
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010
I don’t know if you ever saw Lilo and Stitch

40 % 10 %
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One coupon per customer per day. Original coupon must be surrendered at time of purchase. May not be used for prior I wish you’d left us with just one more song
purchases or combined with any other coupon, offer, or discount. May not be used to purchase gift cards, debit cards, class
Rich Cronin, now you’re out of sight
cards, debit cards, class fees, in-store activities, birthday party booking fees or Manhattan courier fees. Valid at Michaels fees, in-store activities, birthday party booking fees or Manhattan courier fees. Valid at Michaels stores only. Limited to
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name Death is a cave and you’re a stalagmite.

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SIMONE LANDON B’10.5 wears Abercrombie & Fitch.

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ALL CRICUT AND SLICE PRODUCTS. One coupon per customer per day. Original coupon must be surrendered at time of purchase. May not be used for prior
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purchases or sale price items or combined with any other coupon, offer, sale or discount. May not be used to purchase gift cards, debit cards, class fees, in-store activities, birthday party booking fees or Manhattan courier fees. Valid at Michaels stores
cards, debit cards, class fees, in-store activities, birthday party booking fees or Manhattan courier fees. Valid at Michaels stores only. Limited to stock on hand. No reproductions or electronic images accepted. Void where prohibited.
only. Limited to stock on hand. No reproductions or electronic im-
ages accepted. Void where prohibited.

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THEINDY.ORG
A T T W
M
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION AND ITS PLACE IN THE
MODERN ECONOMY
Over the last ten years a digital coup

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d’etat has overthrown media market-
place conventions. No longer do we have
to meddle with real discs or bother driv-
ing somewhere or ordering something
via the postal service; we, being the hy-
per-productive lazy-asses we are, would
more readily just download the latest,
greatest, proverbial hot cultural shit
straight to our hard drives through the
“series of tubes” we all know and love.
The truth is in the numbers. Apple,
based solely on iTunes, is now the larg-
est music provider in the world. Ama-
zon.com—a company with no physical

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stores—tied with Walmart earlier this
year for second place. Video-rental ser-
vice NetFlix introduced video-streaming
to its website in 2009 and it’s already
used by some 42% of its 11 million-
plus subscribers. The Kindle, Amazon’s
e-book reader, is causing mass book
publisher hysteria, and for good reason:
from April to July of this year, 143 Kin-
dle books were reportedly sold for every
100 hardcovers. Digital purchases of mu-
sic jumped from 20% to 35% of all music
sales from 2007 to 2009 according to the
NPD, and digital movie sales increased
20% in 2009. This was and continues to
be a market on the move.
As with any new revenue stream that
consumers, producers, and distributors
dive into in lemming-like droves, the
three groups naturally began to smack
into each others’ skulls, and through
the usual suit/countersuit follow-ups
they’ve managed to ask some questions
essential to the continuation of a mar-
ketplace on the World Wide Web. What
is ‘owning’ something that doesn’t phys-
ically exist? Does a consumer ever actu-
ally have full control over these ‘prod-
ucts,’ or is digital ownership no more
than a glorified rental service? And what
of the artists—are they stuck in the
background, shuffled about by third-par-
ty players that funnel their output into
only the appropriate channels for mass
electronic consumption?
U N D E R M I N I N G M O N O P O LY
Currently the most disturbing trend in
digital distribution is the continuing
Cold War between borderline monopo-
lies such as iTunes with the staggering
number of consumers who download
media without paying. The IFPI, an in-
ternational body of music law, estimated
in 2009 that 95% of all music downloads
were illegal, and by last count (2006),
the NPD said that illegal video down-
loads outnumber legal ones five to one.
In addition to these staggering numbers,
the myriad of sources where files can be
shared has turned these law-breakers
into an anonymous, legally untouch-
able mass that any practical company
wouldn’t even consider trying to sue.
So, forced on the defensive, the indus-
try mammoths have turned to the use
of DRM, Digital Rights Management,
to try and keep the files they sell from
being used in ways they don’t approve
of. Results were not as expected: Kindle
caught heat in 2009 for remotely remov-
ing George Orwell’s (the irony) 1984 and
Animal Farm from users’ devices due to
a publisher squabble without any prior
notice or consent from their users. In
4
Arts

tube transformed into a corporate police by Nick Morley
state by deciding to follow through on
any publisher’s request to remove up-
loaded videos that didn’t explicitly cite
songs or movie clips. And until last year, to the Goliaths currently holding down
iTunes would not let any file downloaded a market filled with questions yet to be
through its store be played in any device really answered in anything other than
but iPods, sometimes even giving cer- lawyerspeak. The balance is at least in
tain playlists a limited number of burns question, though, and the norm- market
to CD before locking it on a user’s com- dominance despite a steady stream of
puter for good. Even consumers had to DRM controversy- is ripe for uprooting.
ask—did these items belong to them at The success of creator-driven sites
all? What kind of strings were attached like bandcamp and, to a lesser extent,
without them knowing? :PVUVCF
what-you-want album releases from art-
V I VA L E R E S I S TA N C E ists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails,
Whether these oppressive small-print is too great to ignore. These schemes ap-
policies are hampering or engendering peal to the educated music fan, the one
illegal downloads is still subject of stale- who could pay for music but refuses to
mated debate, though a third option to give it to The Man. With this demo-
on the rise may be digital distribution’s graphic alone, a substantial amount of
most encouraging—the artist-run ser- those illegal downloaders would give art-
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ist-run services a passing glance, which
free video uploads for all, initiatives like is all any website with ad revenue needs
those at www.bandcamp.org and Ama- to begin to build a financial base. Plus,
zon’s Digital Text Platform are letting XIJMF
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startup musicians and authors actually sure, an artist-run market would be im-
profit in the digital age for nary a penny. mune to such threats, as any free prod-
It removes the middleman—the industry uct is only let loose with the consent of
price-and format-locking or a publishing the creator. Sure, it may take a few more
group’s demands— and allows an artist bona fide big-sellers through the servic-
to appeal directly to their fanbase. Band- es to make a lasting impression, but the
camp, recently buoyed by the release of paranoid big digital industry had best be
Sufjan Stevens’ newest EP, even allows wary of this upstart trend. After all, fol-
the albums to go for free (certainly an lowing the French Revolution, did not
option to consider in the ever-expanding Robespierre’s head also roll?
world of online interconnection). Still,
these are relatively independent and, un- NICHOLAS MORLEY B’13 has a
til recently, unnoticed projects—Davids slingshot aimed, ready.
5 S E P T E M B E R 16 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Metro

P  Y.I.M.B.Y

  
CITY LEGALIZES BACKYARD HENS by Zach Rausnitz

D
isillusioned by your egg options at the supermarket, and shut out
by the prices at the farmers market? Prefer to take matters into
your own hands? Providence residents now have a new option.
Lastweek, with a near-unanimous vote, the Providence City Coun-
of what we eat comes from farms within the state” and sees the promise of “a more
cil passed an ordinance amendment allowing city-dwellers to raise one hen per 800
sustainable future for Rhode Island” in “enhancing our capacities for growing food
square feet of lot area, with a maximum of six hens.
locally via farms or back yards, both urban and rural.”
Christine Chitnis, an East Side resident, led the successful campaign. For a year,
With the amendment passing so overwhelmingly (only one vote in opposition), it
she managed to raise a pair of Ameraucana hens—known for their blue eggs—in
seems odd that the ban had stood for so many decades. Chitnis believes many people
her backyard without trouble. In early June, an animal control officer came by her
were misinformed about the trouble they thought hens would cause. Part of her cam-
house, and informed Chitnis, 27, that she had two days to get rid of the chickens.
paign entailed debunking common myths about hens, including that they are noisy
After the chickens were confiscated and temporarily relocated to a farm in Massa-
and dirty, will lure predators and spread disease, and need far more roaming space
chusetts, she organized a group of supporters informally called People Encourag-
than the average city yard. As Chitnis explained in an e-mail, “I believe we presented
ing Chicken Keeping (PECK).
such a good, well-researched argument that it was hard to refute.” Though PECK got
Krista Iacobucci, a 34-year-old speech-language pathologist and PECKer who
its way, it’s not clear that the Council took the issue seriously. When the Council
was already raising chickens in Providence’s Elmhurst neighborhood when it was
members voted, a few of them chuckled as they approved the measure.
illegal, wrote in an e-mail to the Independent that she wants “to have fresh, local
For those ready to take up urban homesteading, there are costs. Chitnis’s cam-
organic eggs” and that by raising hens at home, her three children also get to learn
paign literature says that a small coop and pen can cost as little as $100, though she
“where our food comes from.” As a bonus, hens “are fun to watch, easy to care for,
says she spent upward of $2,000 on her own supplies (and built the coop herself). But
don’t smell and don’t make much noise.” Or, as she puts it: “The perfect pet!” Her
beyond the initial investment, hens don’t require much. Feed is cheap, and chickens
coop, where the hens lay eggs and sleep safely at night, allots four square feet per
will also eat kitchen scraps and forage for bugs and vegetation growing in the yard.
hen. During the day, “they have the run of the yard,” which is surrounded by a four-
Providence probably won’t be overrun with chickens anytime soon, and with a cap
foot fence. Chores include bringing out food and water in the morning, closing up
of six hens per household (and the average hen laying five eggs per week), nobody is
the hens at night, and cleaning the coop once a week.
going to have a big enough surplus to sell to covetous neighbors who lack the time or
In addition to gathering hundreds of signatures, PECK gained the support
money to raise their own eggs. But for those who can make the investment, Provi-
of many community groups, including Southside Community Land Trust, Farm
dence just became a much more welcoming place for a backyard farmer.
Fresh Rhode Island and the African Alliance of Rhode Island. The head of Rhode
Island’s Division of Agriculture, Ken Ayars, also wrote a letter to the city council in
ZACH R AUSNITZ B’10.5 learned all about chickens from Arrested Development.
support of the amendment in which he expressed his worry that only “one percent

P P
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIGS IN PROVIDENCE by Margiana Petersen-Rockney

F
or early English settlers
in New England, livestock
was more than just a
source of food. Roger Wil-
liams, founder of Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations,
thought the transition “from Barbarism
to Civilitie [sic]” rested in “keeping some
kind of cattel [sic].” While docile cattle
were the English settlers’ animals of
choice, the Native Americans who ad-
opted livestock most often chose the pig.
Pigs could scavenge, defend themselves
from predators, and come when called.
But English pigs were a nuisance for Na-
tive Americans. Left to run free, pigs
destroyed cornfields, berry patches, and
shellfish beds. Often, they got caught
in traps left for deer

4OPXT
TVD were now told to embrace the rest of the
and other wildlife, and Native Ameri-
cans were forced to pay the owner for
the damage done to the caught hog.
The real glory days for the pig in
Rhode Island were in the early 19th cen-
tury. As Providence grew, pigs became
a common sight in poorer neighbor-
hoods like Fox Point. Left to roam free,
the pigs ate trash, manure, and swill.
But hogs often wandered down afflu-
ent Benefit Street, bringing their smell
and reminder of an agricultural past
into the richer neighborhoods of Provi-
dence. On May 11, 1825, The Providence
Patriot described one incident from
nearby Stonington, Connecticut that
was no doubt relatable to the everyday
experiences of readership of the paper:
“It was only the day before yester-
day that one of these gentle-
men upon all fours, who
appears to possess
rather refined taste, for one of his grade
in society, and who, perhaps, had a mind
to avail himself of speculation in West-
Indes[sic] produce, walked very deliberately
into the cellar of a store near the wharf,
and with a good deal of sang froid, pulled
the tap from a hogshead of molasses.”
In 1854, Edwin Snow, the city’s Super-
intendent of Health, blamed the deaths
of 25 cholera victims on Fox Point hogs.
Soon, they became the scapegoat for epi-
demics, vagrancy, and crime. He claimed
that the 40 tons of pork raised on gar-
bage and then eaten by its residents
was diseased, and couldn’t believe “pork
raised in city pens, or under city stables,
or fed upon city offal, should be eaten by
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cessor, Charles Chapin, conducted blind
taste tests between grain and garbage fed
pork, coming to the conclusion that “the
garbage-fed pork was firmer and stood
higher” and was of superior quality.)
So Providence turned waste into a
profitable venture, selling trash collec-
tion licenses to contractors who paid for
the privilege of removing waste. They
sold it to hog farmers just outside the
city limits. The only problem, as Snow
complained, was that the hogs “soon
began to reappear, and increased to
an alarming extent.” Pushed out of the
trash cycle by city officials, women and
children began to steal trash to feed
their now-illegal hogs, perpetuating
the vagrancy Snow sought to banish.
The final blow might have been the
municipal garbage plant built on a
swamp close to the Fox Point communi-
ty in 1890. The same residents who were
forced to kill their trash-eating swine
city’s waste without any personal gain.
But the plant was too expensive to
maintain and closed after just three
years. Providence again turned to the
pig. By the end of World War I, more
than 2,000 hogs were raised just beyond
Providence each year on the city’s waste.
But the glory days of pigs, roam-
ing the streets and feasting on mo-
lasses, were over. Pigs were no lon-
ger part of the city ecology. Bacon
was found at the grocery store, and
trash disappeared to the landfill.
MARGIANA PETERSENROCKNEY
B’11 is making lard in the cauldron.
THEINDY.ORG
UNITE HERE
THE LONG-­TERM UNEMPLOYED FIGHT
BACK
by George A. Warner
Illustration by Kah Yangni
J
Joseph Mastrofran-
cesco, a tall, portly
man from Fall River,
has worked in manu-
facturing all his life.
In 1988, he found
his first job at Cowen
Plastics—the oldest
injectable molding company in Rhode Is-
land, until it shut down in 2006. Nearly
20 years and a string of manufacturing
jobs later, Mastrofancesco went to work
at Thompson Products in 2006, running
the machines that make photo boxes. “I
thought I was going to be pretty much
set,” he says.
But in February 2008, he was told he
would be out of a job in June. The factory
shut down; production shifted to a sister
company overseas. Countless resumes,
four interviews, and two years later,
Mastrofrancesco is still out of a job. Be-
tween June, when his unemployment
benefits ran out, and late August, when
his wife found a job, the couple lived on
$300 dollars a month. If Mastrofran-

weeks [of benefits] is sufficient.”
cesco’s family hadn’t owned the house
the couple lives in, he doesn’t know how
they would have survived.
For Rhonda Taylor of North Provi-
dence, the last two years have been simi-
lar: resume after resume filed, interviews
few and far between, no jobs offered. She
had been employed most of her life, first
as a teacher in New Hampshire, most
recently in the merchandising depart-
ment of a large company based in Rhode
Island. Taylor, who is 42, lost her job in
late 2008. “Apparently, once my job be-
came automated, I was not necessary
anymore.”
When her unemployment ran out
earlier this year, her family—four chil-
dren and a husband who is also unem-
ployed—was left only with food stamps
and the money she receives for her nine-
year-old son from Social Security, $713
dollars a month. “My rent alone is $750,”
she says. She’s afraid her family might
have to move to a shelter.
Despite mounting bills and bouts of
depression that have come with unem-
ployment, Mastrofancesco and Taylor—
like many other unemployed Americans
around the US—have started to speak
up. Instead of taking it to the streets,
they have connected with a vibrant on-
line community of others hit hard by
unemployment. Using UCubed, a social
network for the unemployed, Facebook
pages like “Tier 5 to Survive” and promi-
nent blogs like LayoffList and Jobless
Unite, unemployed people around the
country have collectively petitioned poli-
ticians, shared resources for finding jobs
and negotiating government benefits,
combated stereotypes, and advocated
for legislation.
6
Metro
PERSPECTIVE AND PA R T I -­
SANSHIP
In our Great Recession, the experience
of unemployment has radically changed.
Before 2008, unemployment was diffi-
cult, but usually short. Three-fourths or
more of the unemployed would find a job
in less than six months, even during the
roughest of times. Now, unemployment
lasts over six months for nearly half of
those without a job. As a group, they are
older, almost certainly without a college
degree, and likely to continue being job-
less. Many, until now, felt solidly middle
class. Now, they are becoming part of the
growing American poor.
The new reality of unemployment
seems here to stay. This past Sunday
on ABC, Austan Goolsbee, chair of the
Obama administration’s Council of Eco-
nomic Advisers, warned that unemploy-
ment is “going to stay high.” In Rhode test. At the time, the LA Times explained:
Island and Southeastern Massachusetts,
A LO N E TO G E T H E R
“a further extension is considered un-
The unemployed are not rolling with the likely.” Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), the
the same industries that have resulted
punches, they are fighting back. On Au- powerful head of the Senate Finance
in the most job losses—manufacturing,
gust 12, unemployed people from New Committee, said that he thought “99
administrative services and construc-
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tion—are the ones least likely to return.
demanding that Congress address long- The organizing has started to pay off.
At the same time, the unemployed
term unemployment. But for many of In June, both Taylor and Mastrofrances-
have faced increased criticism from the
the unemployed, the cost of travel makes co’s stories were highlighted at a meet-
political right. For them, chronic unem-
attending such rallies too costly. Taylor ing of the House Ways and Means Com-
ployment is not a structural issue: it is
laughs at the idea of driving down to mittee proposing potential responses to
the product of supposedly anemic work
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FY unemployment. On August 4, the Amer-
ethic made worse by generous govern-
pired, she is more concerned about how icans Want to Work Act (AWTWA) was
ment handouts. In June, Senator Orrin
she is going to travel around Providence. introduced in the Senate, co-sponsored
Hatch (R-UT) explained the rationale
She plans on learning to navigate RIPTA, by both Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
behind his proposal to drug test all re-
a service she has yet to use. (D-RI) and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI). The
cipients of government assistance: “We
In lieu of rallies, the unemployed have legislation would provide 20 additional
should not be giving cash to people
turned online. Taylor has posted articles, weeks of benefits for the unemployed
who basically are going to go blow it on
legislative updates, and pending actions in states with unemployment above 7.5
drugs.” In Nevada, Sharron Angle, the
to “The 99ers need a Tier V added to Un- percent, potentially keeping Taylor’s
Republican challenger to Senator Harry
employment Benefits,” a Facebook page, family in her home. It would also expand
Reid (D), suggested that the unemployed
recently helping a Cleveland area man and extend tax benefits for companies
were “spoiled.” Glenn Beck thinks that
find transportation to the One Nation that hire the long-term unemployed,
unemployed people—unwilling to work
Working Together rally this October in counteracting the prejudice that long-
because of unemployment benefits—
DC. term unemployed workers have experi-
should be ashamed to call themselves
Mastrofrancesco has kept people in- enced while searching for jobs.
Americans. The unemployed should “go
formed too, using Facebook as a means But passing AWTWA will be an up-
out and get a job…work at McDonalds.
to share his experience of receiving Pell hill battle. Many members of Congress
Work two jobs,” he said.
Grants designated specifically for dislo- see the fight to keep the temporary 99
But, as Taylor says, “I can’t even get
cated workers. With the help of those weeks intact as a still uncertain victory.
a job at Burger King,” let alone two. For
grants, he is now getting retrained as a Whether or not AWTWA passes, the per-
Mastrofrancesco, who quit smoking cig-
social worker at Bristol Community Col- sistent voices of the unemployed have
arettes over the last year, the question
lege. He hopes his comments will help helped keep the worsening problem of
is: “How do you expect us to take drugs
other unemployed people take advan- long-term joblessness on the public ra-
and party when we can barely pay the
tage of the same, underused program. dar this fall.
bills?” It is less that people are unwilling
Since April, much of the action has Despite their activism, Mastrofran-
to work than that there are simply few
been geared at getting Congress to pass cesco and Taylor are no politicos. “I hate
jobs to be had. In July, there were nearly
a fifth tier of unemployment benefits, my situation the way it is,” Mastrofran-
five job seekers for every job opening. As
now limited to a maximum of 99 weeks cesco says. His priority is to finish his
of August, there were 15 million Ameri-
in states with high unemployment. On associate’s degree and find a job. Politics
cans unemployed. And while Republi-
May Day, unemployed blogger Paladi- come second.
cans—and some Democrats—oppose
nette (known as Donalee King offline),
extending unemployment insurance, the
helped organize a “Mayday SOS” cam- GEORGE A. WARNER B’10.5 is a
Congressional Budget Office, Paul Krug-
paign. She posted the fax numbers for surefire way to stimulate our dormant
man and Joseph Stieglitz all agree that
Members of Congress, President Obama economy.
unemployment benefits, by providing
and White House staff on her blog, Job-
guaranteed spending, are a surefire way
less Unite—and encouraged unemployed
to stimulate our still-dormant economy.
readers to fax in their resumes as a pro-
7 S E P T E M B E R 16 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T

Science

F  D

OREGON HOSPICES RELUCTANT TO ACCEPT
STATE-­ASSISTED SUICIDE POLICIES
by Katie Delaney
Illustration by Kah Yangni

L
ast week, a study
released by Oregon
State University
found that a major-
ity of hospice pro-
grams in Oregon
have little or no
participation in Death With Dignity—
the Oregon law that allows terminally ill
patients to end their own lives through
a procedure called physician-assisted
death. Of the 56 hospices surveyed
(which account for 86% of all hospice
programs in Oregon), one quarter do not
participate at all, and 27% simply refer
interested patients to an attending phy-
sician without offering any further in-
formation. Hospices are a major source
of care for terminally ill patients nation-
wide, and a key mechanism in ensuring
that the Death With Dignity (DWD) pol-
icies are carried out responsibly in Or-
egon, one of just three states where phy-
sician-assisted death is legal. (The other
two are Washington and Montana.) If
Oregon hospices shy away from this type
of care, the fear is that patients might
not have reliable information about, or
access to, physician-assisted death.
Oregon was the first state to legalize
this form of assisted suicide, and the
state’s Death With Dignity Act—first
passed in 1994—has weathered some
intense opposition since its inception.
A legal injunction prevented the imple-
mentation of the law until 1997. Then,
just a month after the injunction was
lifted, the state legislature tried to repeal
the Act, only to have Oregon voters block
the move 60-40. DWD took a hit again
in a 2006 Supreme Court case, when
the Bush Administration challenged
Oregon’s right to dispense federally-
regulated substances during physician-
assisted death. But the law stands, and
terminally ill Oregon residents are now
allowed to “end their own life through
the voluntary self-administration of le-
thal medications.”
This, of course, comes with restric-
tions—some say too many, some say
not enough. The patient must be an
adult and an Oregon resident. They must
submit a written request to their doctor
(signed by two witnesses) for a prescrip-
tion, followed by two spoken requests
at least 15 days apart. Any doctor, phar-
macist, or healthcare worker in Oregon
has the right to refuse to participate at
any point in the process. And physician-
assisted death in Oregon is just that:
assisted. While a physician writes the
prescription, the patient must give the
lethal dose of medication to him/herself.
And, of course, the patient must be ter-
minally ill, with a prognosis of less than
six months to live.
The six-month rule is also a common
metric for hospices; in order to receive
palliative care (read: pain-management,
focus on quality of life) insurers require
a patient to sign off on the fact that they
have less than six months to live, and
that they willingly forgo curative treat-
ments in favor of hospice care. From that
point, according to the Oregon State
study, hospice credos generally seek “to
neither hasten nor postpone death.”
The goal for a hospice worker is to help
patients be comfortable and peaceful
during their last months and to make
sure that the patient is able to live out
the rest of their daily life as unencum-
bered as possible. And this is where the
conflict comes in for Oregon hospices:
DWD may fulfill one of these goals, but
it clearly conflicts with the other. Phy-
sician-assisted death may be a patient’s
wish for comfort and peace, but it clearly
hastens death—an idea that a majority
of Oregon hospices simply cannot get on
board with.
There are legal reasons for hospices to
shy away from DWD services: according
to the law, doctors are the only health
professionals allowed to sign off on a
physician-assisted death, and most hos-
pice workers are nurses or home health
aides. But if the obstacle to providing
DWD services was strictly legal, it would
still be easy enough for an Oregon hos-
pice worker to refer a patient to a phy-
sician willing to provide those services.
But they don’t. Most Oregon hospice
patients are left to navigate the DWD
process—meaning, finding a physician
and jumping all the legal hurdles—on
their own. For hospices, the reservations
about DWD apparently run deeper than
the legal topsoil, hitting the bedrock of a
hospice’s moral foundation.
Hospices have had to work hard to
combat the public perception that pal-
liative care is “giving up” or, as Atul
Gawande put it in a recent New Yorker
piece: “The picture I had of hospice was
of a morphine drip.” And while it’s hard
for most people to imagine that forgo-
ing chemo or opting out of a last-ditch
surgery is not equivalent to hastening
death, the research all points the same
way: for many patients, there is no dif-
ference in survival time between hospice
clients and those receiving aggressive
treatment. In fact, for some diseases,
hospice patients have been found to
live longer than their intubated, ICU-
residing counterparts. So it’s not hard to
see why Oregon hospice programs would
want to steer clear of DWD services: they
perpetuate the image of hospice as long-
form euthanasia—exactly the image
that hospice care has fought so hard to
change.
But what about that other half of the
hospice mission—the part about pro-
viding comfort and peace at the end of
life? It’s understandable that hospices
wouldn’t exactly want to flaunt DWD
services because of the conflict with “has-
tening death,” but don’t they also have a
duty to provide access and resources to
patients who choose physician-assisted
death as their most comfortable and
peaceful option? Apparently not—ac-
cording to last week’s report, not only
do most Oregon hospices refuse to pro-
vide doctors or medication, but a quar-
ter of them offer no information about
DWD at all, and many prohibit hospice
staff members to even be present during
a physician-assisted death, even if the
assisting doctor is unaffiliated with the
hospice and the patient is self-adminis-
tering the medication.
This issue wouldn’t be nearly as press-
ing (or worthy of study), if there were
multiple access points for DWD services.
But as it stands, in Oregon, hospices are
pretty much it: over the past two years,
95% patients who requested DWD ser-
vices were also enrolled in a hospice
when they did so. This reveals two im-
portant trends, according to the Oregon
State study: on one hand, this is a good
thing—those who need it the most (ter-
minally ill patients with less than six
months to live) are getting palliative
care. However, this also makes clear that
if hospices don’t provide information
about DWD to the terminally ill popula-
tion in Oregon, it’s unlikely that anyone
else will.
K ATIE DELANEY B’11 hastens noth-
ing and postpones everything.
THEINDY.ORG
M, M,
M
WHY ARE WE SO OBSESSED
WITH THE CHILEAN MINERS?
W
by Kate Welsh
hen the dust settled several hours after the mine caved
in upon them, 33 Chilean copper miners began their
murky ascent up the emergency ladder in a ventilation
shaft that they expected would lead them to the surface
about half a mile above. They only got a third of the way
up. The mine owners had never bothered to finish the ladder. After being entombed
in a safety shaft the size of a small apartment for 17 days, while rationing two days’
worth of food, the miners were finally able to attach a message to the end of a small
probing drill sent by rescuers that they were all alive and in relatively good health.
Both the miners and their rescuers were elated by their discovery, but they quickly
realized that it could take up to four months to bring the men to the surface; addi-
tionally, the miners would have to aid their own rescue—clearing up to 4,000 tons
of rock that will fall as the rescue hole is drilled. Meanwhile, their only access to
food, medicine, and communication with the outside world is through three small
holes, and they have almost zero exposure to natural light. The immense psychologi-
cal toll they are bound to experience is akin to that of astronauts or Arctic explor-
ers—except that these miners did not choose to be so dramatically cut off from the
natural world.
Media outlets across the globe quickly discovered the public’s insatiable appetite
for this story. The miners exhibit a compelling portrayal of human behavior and
interaction under extreme stress and isolation. They have established a hierarchical
leadership, a procedure for rationing food and eating together, as well as a “buddy”
system to insure each man’s psychological health. They have developed a rhythm to
their daily life as they wait for a rescue that may not come until Christmas. One, an
electrician, rigged up a lighting system to create the semblance of day and night.
Another travels through the tunnels and caverns monitoring levels of oxygen and
carbon dioxide. The group also appointed a pastor to conduct daily religious services
and an official cameraman and historian. They also designated one of their number
to be the group’s official poet, whose missives have become widely read throughout
the world.
MEDIA FRENZY
The surrounding media spectacle has also shifted the storyline, soap opera-like,
from the problems facing the miners to intimate details of their personal lives. On
September 10, newspapers were abuzz with the news that both the wife and mis-
tress of one of the miners were awaiting his rescue at the surface. Two miners have
already asked their longtime girlfriends to marry them, and the story that some of
the miners were sent nicotine patches to prevent withdrawal was covered across the
globe.
Not surprisingly, there is already a film in the making. The director, Rodrigo Or-
tuzar, has already come up with a poster for the movie, which he has titled “The
33,” featuring a lone miner walking down a gloomy tunnel toward a distant patch of
light, under the caption, “based on a true story.” “We have to wait for the ending, but
what is happening up to now is incredible… We’ve got a great opportunity to create
and develop a script during that time [the three to four months it will take to extract
the miners],” an excited Ortuzar told reporters. While Ortuzar’s characterization of
being trapped in a 1,000 square foot pitch-black hole for four months with thirty-
two other increasingly grumpy men as a “great opportunity” is a bit insensitive, he
is not wrong in his assertion. It is, all too obviously, “great” movie material.
The Chilean media response seems to be following in the footsteps of another,
modern-day South American legend. In October 1972, an airplane carrying the
Uruguayan rugby team crashed into the snow-covered Andes. Only sixteen people
survived after over two months of desperate isolation. With no winter clothes and
very little food, the group tried to eat strips of cloth torn from pieces of luggage and
the airplane seats. After days of scouring the fuselage in search of any kind of edible
morsel, they came to the collective decision to eat the bodies of their already dead
friends and relatives. The choice to eat human flesh was all that kept them alive;
some of the survivors equated the act of cannibalism to the ritual of Holy Commu-
nion. Their story became a global phenomenon, inspiring several books and three
8
Features
movies. One of the survivors made a bid for the Uruguayan presidency in 1994 and
another is a motivational speaker.
However, the media furor disturbed many of the survivors, who felt that it cheap-
ened and sensationalized their harrowing experience. Nando Parrado wrote in his
book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, “Our
survival had become a matter of national pride. Our ordeal was being celebrated as a
glorious adventure… I didn’t know how to explain to them that there was no glory in
those mountains. It was all ugliness and fear and desperation, and the obscenity of
watching so many innocent people die.”
Four of the Uruguayan crash survivors visited the site of the trapped Chilean min-
ers to offer their support. One of the Uruguayans said that the Chilean story is “simi-
lar to ours” but “more beautiful because they are all alive.”
This is not the first mine disaster in recent years to inspire a film. In 2002, nine
miners in Somerset County, Pennsylvania were trapped in a flooding shaft for over
78 hours before they were finally rescued. There were talks to turn the story into
a TV miniseries, but the plans soured after disputes over the lucrative movie deal.
The “Quecreek Mine Incident” turned the media spotlight onto Somerset County—
Quecreek was also only a few miles from the United Flight 93 crash site. Newspapers
dubbed Somerset “America’s county.” At a back-to-back memorial service this July at
the scenes of the September 11 crash and the subterranean drama, U.S. Representa-
tive Mark Critz (D-Pennsylvania) said, “I guess the saving of the nine miners was
reaffirming that we’re in this together, and when we pull together, great things can
happen.” The story of the miners took on a symbolic meaning—they became an icon
of national pride, and a sort of “proof” that Americans will persevere if they work
together.
 
A LO N E TO G E T H E R
The mining story has turned into an easy nationalist support beam. Chileans quickly
picked up the success of finding the miners as a success for Chile. Chilean president
Sebastian Pinera’s approval rating has risen from 46 to 56 percent, and the coun-
try’s morale has risen since its devastating earthquake in February. “They have found
them alive and that is an achievement for all of the country, not just for the presi-
dent or his government but for the whole country,” says Maria Cecilia Sandoval, a
homemaker from a beach resort near Santiago. People want to believe that this type
of spirit exists in themselves. The miners displaying resilience and teamwork act as a
representation of the country as a whole.
What is so disturbing and compelling about the trapped miners is the sheer
amount of time they will spend underground with nothing to occupy themselves
except each other. There is a cultural fascination with isolation and confinement, as
well as an interest in the forced emergence of a community in such an extreme en-
vironment. NASA—in order to psychologically prepare their astronauts for space—
has conducted decades-long studies of researchers in the Arctic, who for six months
of the year live in total isolation with no access to sunlight or any goods from the out-
side world. Observing how these men cope with nothing but the company of other
men brings into question how human order is maintained. So far, like in prisons, the
men have upheld a sense of order by creating a semblance of society.
It would be nice to believe that the sense of unity and organization from working
together is the end of the story, but in fact, it is more complicated than that. NASA
advised the Chilean rescue mission that getting the miners to the surface was only
one step in the process of their reintegration into society. For better or for worse,
these isolation situations are not the real world. When Jerri Nielsen, a doctor who
spent six months at the South Pole chronicled in the book Ice Bound, wrote to her
family from the Arctic, she said, “It is hard to doubt yourself here; you’d die. I love it
here so much that I don’t ever want to leave. I don’t belong in the world, never have.”
Like space travelers on a dark planet, the miners and South Pole explorers lose their
sense of time. NASA studies have shown that in many cases, the pressure of confine-
ment and proximity to others cause people to displace their stress onto those on the
“outside,” who cannot possibly begin to understand their experience.
Maybe our fascination with the miners is an expression of a harbored desire to be
forcibly isolated, to experience reality on the most basic of levels. Surviving in con-
finement provides an intensity of living that cannot be replicated in a world where
concerns are considerably more complicated. The Chilean miner-cum-poet, Victor
Zamora, wrote to his mother that he feels as if he is “born again” because of the
weeks-long ordeal. He writes, “under the earth there is a ray of light, my path, and
faith is the last thing I have lost…” But of course, he still has ten weeks left.
K ATE WELSH B’12 thinks you should check out the stacks in the basement of the
Rock.
R I P, Rhode Island M
S
CO R P O R ATE P RO FIT S , LO
troll through Warwick’s Rhode Island Mall and find yourself in an How does a mall go from 60 stores to four in a
alternate, post-apocalyptic universe. The once-bustling stores, 60 competition with the neighboring Warwick Mall
in all, are dark and sealed off by metal grates. In the empty hall- earlier this year. The Warwick Mall was built in
ways, you hear nothing but the click of your own shoes and the Mall, and for the two decades that followed the
hum of the air conditioning system, barely concealed by the still Then, in the mid ’90s, the Rhode Island Mall c
bubbling fountain in the center of the mall. The signs and block lost a major department store, G.Fox, when the s
letters that once lured shoppers still hang above the empty sock- twenty of the 97 stores were vacant according to
ets, like tattoos from a past life. which speculated that the mall had perhaps beco
Save for a group of elderly mall walkers, a cleaning lady pushing a mop cart, and In 2000, when Walmart announced plans to
the lone clerks at the counters of the five remaining stores—Lens Crafters, First
DEATH BY CORPO-­ Place Sports, GNC, H&R Block, and the Toy Vault—the mall is completely empty. The
owners hoped that the mall would recover with
But when Walmart opened on January 23, 2002,
RATE DEADLOCK door to the western anchor, the still- operating Sears, is deserted, while the door that sealed. Assistant store manager Allan Hale say
once opened into the eastern anchor has been closed all together. The space remains included double doors opening into the mall, w
FOR RHODE oddly well-maintained, as if human life had been wiped out by a sudden plague. struction.
The Rhode Island Mall is officially a “dead mall,” or a mall with such a high vacancy Chris Buchanan, Walmart’s Senior Manager o
ISLAND’S FIRST rates that it is in danger of being abandoned or demolished, not to mention forgot- he has tried to investigate why the doors were se
ten by the shoppers who once slurped milkshakes at the Newport Creamery and pur- and other store owners believe that neither Walm
MODERN MALL chased winter furs at G.Fox. When the mall was built in 1967 as the Midland Mall, it it. It is not uncommon for still-thriving anchor
was the first modern indoor shopping center in Rhode Island, with two stories and selves off from dead mall space, like the ancho
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by Alice Hines fountain courtyard, and a food court were added.
Frank Silva, the owner of First Place Sports, remembers what the mall was like in
In December 2003, Stop & Shop signed a le
its central mall space. Immediately after, all the
Photography the late ’80s and early ’90s. “It was really busy. Everyone knew each other. We used
to all look forward to going on breaks to Papa Gino’s.” Today, Silva’s store is bordered
made to sign new, 30-day contracts, which stipul
the mall within a month if Stop & Shop went
by John Fisher by empty shops, and most of the time he brings his lunch. “Everyone has moved on,”
he says. “I seem to be the only one that didn’t.”
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Despite the loss of foot traffic, Silva’s business is surviving. Most of his sales come
Design by from loyal customers who come to his store looking for a particular team that chain
posed the new leases. Champ’s Sporting Goods,
waited for their old leases to expire and then pa
stores don’t carry. Though he thinks he could be doing better somewhere else, Silva Mall was already listed on Deadmalls.com, a web
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don’t want to change.” Silva bets he’ll be the last one to go. “They’ll probably have to
malls across America.
Stop & Shop has yet to put its space to use.
kick me out,” he says with a chuckle. location less than a mile away from the Rhode
There are no shoppers in sight, but the mall employs a full time security force, The most logical explanation for this, and the on
who apparently have been told to look out for reporters. While talking to some mall- that Stop & Shop is keeping their lease and payin
goers, I was approached by a security officer and asked “if there was any interview- to block competition, Walmart in particular, from
ing going on.” I was told that no stories could be written on the mall or interviews Walmart could use the space to expand int
conducted without the permission of the management. The management would not move that could pose serious competition to Rh
return phone calls. However, owners like Silva were happy to talk about the mall, and is in the process of aggressively courting the N
about the strange circumstances leading to its death. Boston Globe reported in 2009, the chain had tak
sales in New England ($1 billion) from grocers in

Mall
OC AL LOS S E S
little over a decade? One answer is
l, which is open despite the flooding
n 1972, not long after the Midland
malls did not threaten one another.
changed ownership several times. It
store merged with Filene’s. By 1998,
o an article in the Providence Journal,
ome too dated to interest shoppers.
o build a store in Filene’s old space,
h an influx of traffic from Walmart.
, its door to the main mall space was
ys that the original store blueprints
which were never put in during con-
of Public Affairs, said in an email that
ealed without luck. Silva said that he
mart nor the owners ever pushed for
r stores, like Walmart, to seal them-
ors at the Assembly Square Mall of

/:

ease with the Rhode Island Mall for
other store owners in the mall were
lated that they could be evicted from
forth with development. “I had no
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to leave when the management pro-
, FootLocker, and Auntie Annie’s all
acked up. In 2005, the Rhode Island
bsite that documents dead and dying
And in 2007, it opened up another
Island Mall, on Greenwich Avenue.
ne accepted by most store owners, is
ng rent on the empty stores in order
m expanding into the mall.
to a “supercenter” with groceries, a
hode Island Stop & Shops. Walmart
New England grocery market. As The
ken away three percent of retail food
n the past five years.
Buchanan, the Senior Manager of Public Affairs at Walmart, confirmed that Stop
& Shop had purchased a deed restriction from the previous owners “to prevent
Walmart from expanding into the interior of the mall.” Warwick Tax Assessor Ken
Mallette said that the only reason Stop & Shop had leased the space in the first place
was to block Walmart, and that it had never actually been interested in a store op-
portunity. “It’s always been a competitive thing,” he said.
The details of Stop & Shop’s lease—how much the company is paying and how
long it will occupy the mall—remain unknown. Mallette says that the company nev-
er filed any records with the city of Warwick, not even building permit applications
or a certificate of occupancy, as is usually done with long, commercial leases.
Stop & Shop press representative Faith Wiener confirmed that the chain was still
leasing the space, but wouldn’t comment on for how long, or for what purpose. She
said that Stop & Shop was still “evaluating its options” for the space.
In the meantime, no new tenants have been allowed to move in. When the War-
wick mall was submerged in last year’s floods, the Rhode Island Mall was spared.
Immediately following the flood, several tenants, including Anthony and Ruby De-
Fusco, owners of the collectibles store Bear Village, called the management of the
Rhode Island Mall asking about leases. They were turned away.
“The manager said that they were only interested in corporate stores,” Anthony
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approached management, and were also turned away. “If [the management] had
wanted to, after the flood, they could have filled half the mall up. No question,” De-
Fusco said.
DeFusco thinks the problem is that the mall management has no financial incen-
tive to look for new tenants. He says a managing company will not try to fill a space
with tenants if they are being paid by the owner as if tenants already exist. Both the
owner of the mall, the German investment company GLL, and its local manager Da-
vid Graham for Eastern Development, declined to comment for this article.
D E AD MALL D E A D LOCK
Both Silva and DeFusco wish that the government would take a look at the mall’s
situation. “It’s weird that the governor and the mayor let Stop & Shop lease the prop-
erty and take the easy way out. There could be so many more jobs here,” said Silva.
DeFusco agrees. “I dont think Stop & Shop should be allowed to cripple a piece of
real estate,” he said.
Warwick Planning Official Rick Crenca, a principal planner who has worked in
the department since 1977, was unaware of the Stop & Shop lease. While the city
“obviously would not like to see the mall empty,” he says, there is nothing any gov-
ernment office can do to fill empty retail spots other than recommending them to
retailers who already want to move to the area. What happens between a tenant and
an owner, he noted, is a legally binding agreement, adding “we couldn’t do anything.”
There is a strange irony to this corporate tug of war: Stop & Shop is probably the
only reason why a store like Silva’s remains where it is. It has now been almost seven
years that Stop & Shop has paid to keep the mall empty and running, and during this
time, the local businesses who agreed to 30-day leases have been able to remain in
their spaces. If the rent on the empty stores was not being paid as if they were occu-
pied, it is doubtful the mall would still exist. Most likely, it would already have been
demolished or repurposed as a big-box store—maybe even a Walmart.
Silva and the other owners, powerless in the face of corporate deadlock, remain
on 30 day leases, awaiting the inevitable death of the mall. In the current situation,
it is difficult to imagine anything changing. The most recent development at the mall
was the DMV relocating to Cranston on August 7, 2010 to consolidate offices. Frank
is worried; the DMV always brought a few customers to his store while they waited
their turn.
DeFusco, who recently took a look inside the mall when visiting Sears for a pair of
shoes, was shocked to see what the mall looked like now. “It’s like you’re in a movie;
it’s become an eerie place.”
ALICE HINES B’11 could have filled half the mall up. No question.
11
Arts
Providence Arts Guide
by Princessa Jones
Illustrations by Hannah
Plotke and Alexandra
Corrigan

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artistic work this September, but first you
need to change your lifestyle. The stars have
prescribed an all-vegetable juice detox this
month. Come October, you can and will in-
dulge all the partying you want. This psychic
predicts that many performances at Ol-
neyville Warehouses and the RISD Tap room
the weeks before Halloween will get your
passion for the lush life reignited. No mint
juleps, though, for they are the color of envy.
Which brings me to my next point: some-
body is trying to destroy you out of jealousy
starting in November. Watch out, check be-
hind your shower curtains, and screen unsus-
pecting emails for viruses. Don’t be afraid to
unleash your inner demon on the perpetra-
tor. It looks cute on you. [note to self: involve
Mark Tribe]


TAU R U S
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September. Let me give you some advice in
order to ensure a better October: 1. Stop call-
ing your friends to confirm things that they
don’t want to be a part of, and 2. Try to ex-
pand your culinary palette—dump the Chi-
nese take-out. Get off the couch, and show

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the world how special you are. If you start
to open up your tastes, your mind will follow
and break out of your stubborn Taurus ways.
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get over there to take a weekend workshop
in early November and you will realize how
crafty you can be out of the sack. In conclu-
sion, this psychic says: go chasing waterfalls
and don’t stick to the river and the lakes that
you’re used to.
Fall Horoscopes:
ARIES
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let it go to waste, because this psychic sees
you sassing up Providence in a big way this
September. It’s time to meet lots of new
people and show off your bronco spirit. Go
gallery hopping on Thursday nights (perhaps
at the Providence Art Club?) to meet some
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what you want, and this fall you’ll get all the
‘inspiration’ you want from your friends’ un-
patented ideas. In October, Halloween chal-
lenges a relationship—did you try to match
costumes from Savers? Big mistake. Get your
life in order this November, and get cautious
when a rival arises. On November 25, they
plan on putting gum in your hair when you
least suspect it. Don’t overreact, however.
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plotting your revenge.
PISCES
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am I right? But don’t you worry. Things will
continue to be rosy as long as you stay hum-
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ished this summer will culminate at a karaoke
night (try Muldowney’s or Hot Club). Unfor-
tunately, this psychic must say that no one —
neither your lover nor the crowd—will enjoy
your rendition of “Lovefool.” Broken hearted,
you really do become a love fool.Look for a
part-time job to ease your broken heart in
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window display if you play your cards right.
Finally, you’ll be back to your social-butterfly
self in November, Pisces. This psychic pre-
dicts you meet a moody Gemini who will con-
fuse you with drunk texts. If you play hard to
get, his or her heart will be yours.
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from summer. Firstly, stop spending all your
money at the Duck and Bunny. It’s out of
control. And secondly, you must remember
that the past couple months were fire engine
red—you took lovers and broke hearts. But
you’re not a firefighter, so don’t play with
flames anymore. In October, you’ll get wildly
social. Specifically, you go a little Twitter-
crazy. In November, you will think you’re in
a game of Clue, because of all the mysterious
goings-on around you. Let me advise real in-
quiry — you are not imaging these signs! And
may this psychic also give you your first lead:
check out a poetry reading at the New Urban
Arts Gallery on Westminster Street. For Ha-
nukkah, don’t forget to pamper your lover
with an unbridled amount of gifts. They’re
worth it.
SEPTEMBER 16 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
LIBRA
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tionship period of your life, and it involves a
barista at Coffee Exchange. Go see the docu-
C A P R I CO R N mentary on Jean-Michel Basquiat (“The Ra-
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early fall that all you’re able to talk about is a your birthday. Discuss over drinks with your
new obsession with a musical instrument or new babe to decide if your interests align as
arty dalliance. Take it down a notch for your well as your passionate stars have. In Octo-
roommates’ sake. And perhaps go see the ber, don’t be a flirt. A friend thinks you’re
giant Moon sculpture in the Tristan Lowe macking on their honey. In November, you’ll
exhibition at the RISD Museum to cut your rely a little bit too much on WebMD and avoid
ambitious ego down to size. In November, oh the doctor. Even if a visit to the clinic proves
baby—children are in your star chart. Deal nothing, it is important to calm your nerves.
ASAP or else some major life changes are on And if this psychic knows one thing, it’s this:
the horizon. only take advice from a professional.
VIRGO
Though you don’t even care, you’re going to
be super popular starting in the month of
September. If you’re an artist or performer,
fame is possible now. Keep in mind, though,
it’s all about who you do—your success is
tied to relationships. It is super tempting to
S AG I T TA R I U S
pop a pompous person’s balloon with a sharp
September brings a surge of new people, and
little detail, but beware of his or her network-
you have them all under your thumb. Later
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in the fall, you’ll start to resemble a Martha
Stewart catalogue—surrounded by pump- Gaga when you and she attend the RISD
kins, apple cider, snuggling and Halloween Exposé gallery opening November 20, don’t
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you? Lastly, in December, avoid all interac-
in November, and don’t resort to junk food tion with snow.
and clubbing. Approach love as you always
do, with an open mind but a protected heart,
and you might arouse an interest at Live Bait
at the Perishable Theater.
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so! Just remember–life imitates Grey’s Anat-
S CO R P I O
omy, and his or her coworkers are always “on
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call” if you know what I mean. In November,
real. This should be a welcome change, you
avoid getting onto subways and eating at
Scorpio rogue. Channel your intense natural
Subway, for you are accident-prone during
energy into yourself rather than others. Take
this moon-cycle. Instead, stay local and walk
a yoga at Eyes of the World, get your ducks in
over to Fire House 13 for an art opening or
order, and sleep in your bed alone. In October,
concert. In December, thankfully, your life
your boredom will make a romance come too
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easily while standing outside AS220 after a
turns to grace and you become the new Provi-
free printmaking workshop. Don’t lose sight
dence Roller Derby recruit.
of your standards or your bike. In December,
you win awards. Congratulations.
CANCER
Congratulations on getting to fashion week!
From small town to big city, you have come
very far this summer. But careful! The city is
not for the faint of heart, and there are sinners
‘round every corner. Come fall in the gritty
city, you will experience productivity, creation
and rebirth. Consider taking an apparel or in-
terior design class with RISD Continuing Edu-
cation to direct that energy towards bettering
your life. In November, you must stop being so
sensitive and get over it. In December, you’ll
realize you can do much better.
THEINDY.ORG
A STYLE GUIDE FOR THE INCURABLY NOSTALGIC
I
n November of 2008, a re-
print of a slim, obscure Japa-
nese photo book incompre-
hensibly titled Take Ivy sold
on eBay for over $1,400;
similar copies sold for near-
ly that much as they became
available. The book featured hazy, idyllic
photographs of early 1960s American
Ivy League life and Japanese text that,
to western eyes, only underscored the
mystery of it all. Published in Japan in
1965, Take Ivy was a fashion book based
on a series of photographs by the maga-
zine photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida.
It was intended as a guide for style-con-
scious young Japanese, for whom dress-
ing like upper class Americans repre-
sented a form of rebellion from post-war
starched white school uniforms. In that
spirit, Take Ivy included instructions for
assembling a wardrobe that wouldn’t be
out of place on College Hill in 1964. If it
seems strange that a recommendation to
own fourteen oxford cloth button-down
shirts could ever be construed as rebel-
lion, remember, times have changed.
In the years since 1965, the book be-
came a cult classic in certain American
menswear circles (hence those strato-
spheric eBay prices). Frank Muytjens
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for his work turning J. Crew into a mens-
wear juggernaut—has openly discussed
his obsession with the book. Mark Mc-
Nairy, the former Design Director of the
venerable clothing store J. Press (cloth-
ier to Bill Clinton and Bush the elder),
recently mentioned to The New York
Times that the book’s photographs were
an important design inspiration - that is,
until he needed funds to buy his wife a
new handbag and, seeing the high pric-
es commanded on eBay, gave in to the
temptation of quick cash.
The hype surrounding the book was
propelled in recent years by the Inter-
net, culminating when John Tinseth of
the blog The Trad scanned a copy he had
purchased through a Japanese proxy
and posted the book’s contents in full.
Though this did much to break down
the mystique of the book, physical cop-
ies of Take Ivy still only appeared on the
bookshelves of a clothing
obsessed, deep-pocketed
cult. But this is the case no
longer: noticing the on-
line hype, powerHouse,
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lisher of art and fashion
books, purchased its
publication rights and
oversaw its translation into
English. The first print run sold out even
before the official release, and as of Sep-
tember 1, 2010 Take Ivy is available for
$25 from American bookstores or as an
“accessory” from J. Crew.
The clothing presented has a distinct
appeal to a contemporary reader with
any interest in what is now called “classic
collegiate” style. It’s a mélange of tweedy
American and postwar casual: plaid
shorts with brown loafers and white
tube socks, tweed blazers paired with
high-water khaki pants. The students
wear their Sunday best with a certain
sloppy charm and look ready for a sail on
rainy days. It’s “preppy” before that word
came to entail pink and green polka dots
and equestrian themed shirt logos. It
might be the quality of the photography,
but I’ve never seen a plain grey Brown
sweatshirt look so dashing.
The recently translated text is not as
dazzling as the photographs; when the
writers visited Brown, they note that
“the green grass of the school grounds
glistens.” Their observations regarding
crew practice are limited to “Training
is no bed of roses”. Indeed. However,
there’s something oddly charming about
the strange tone and vocabulary of the
translated Japanese: it emphasizes the
outsider status of the writers, and makes
the impenetrable ’60s campus style
somehow more accessible. Many of the
style cues present in the book—ties left
lightly askew, loafers worn ratty rather
than shined, pants hemmed just a little
short—served to separate those in the
know from everyone else. The Japanese
authors dispense with this sort of pre-
tension by making note of even the most
mundane details: they marvel at the
sloppiness of the students, for example,
remarking that “wearing shoes without
socks is one such uncouth practice” com-
mon to Ivy Leaguers.
A comparison with the current state
of campus styles is tempting and in-
evitable. Here at Brown today there’s a
fashion-focused set that seems to have
taken the lessons of 1964 and run with
them (see: chunky glasses, ankle graz-
ing pants). This is an easy, but ultimately
incorrect comparison: Take Ivy
is con- cerned with
the av- erage
T 
by Chris Cohen
rather than exceptional student, and
with a prevailing style rather than up-to-
the-minute fashion. There were probably
beatniks in black turtlenecks smoking
cigarettes on Faunce steps in 1964, but
they’re nowhere to be found within the
book. While there isn’t really a mono-
lithic collegiate style these days, it’s hard
to argue that the flip flops, t-shirts, and
hoodies that abound on the contempo-
rary campus are aesthetically preferable
to the idealized vision of uniform “classic
collegiate” presented in Take Ivy. Frank-
ly, college looked better in 1964 than it
does today, if Take Ivy is your only refer-
ence.
As appealing as the off-kilter word-
ing and stylish photographs are, I’m left
uneasy considering the cultural implica-
tions of the book’s newfound popularity.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that
you have to hunt to find black faces, and
that women are only to be seen in the
role of archetypal girlfriend. The con-
temporary reader would be well served
to note their absence if nostalgia for the
“good old days” threatens to overwhelm.
Only the members of an elite group are
presented in Take Ivy; in this sense the
book is, like the most uninteresting
yacht-and-cocktail-with-sunset Tommy
Hilfiger ads, simply a fetishization of
money and privilege. Worse still, the
privileges of these students extend be-
yond class: these students represent the
country’s educational elite only through
exclusion on the basis of religion, race,
and gender. It’s tempting to argue that
Take Ivy is only admired on an aesthetic
basis, but the fact is, the aesthetics of
the book stem directly from the cultural
position of mid 1960s Ivy League colleg-
es. It is near impossible to parse appre-
ciation of the clothes of young rich white
men and adoration of
their culture. The fact
that these students
12
Arts
Illustration by
Emily Fishman
were the product of all manner of privi-
leges and exclusions underlies the most
mundane details of the book: it’s why
the blazers fit perfectly, why the grass is
so green and why the library is perfectly
clean and still.
Even “classic collegiate,” the label ret-
roactively applied to the clothes high-
lighted in the book, is itself is a specious
description. Ivy League students only
dressed as described in the book for a
brief moment in the late 50s and early
60s. Before the postwar period, a self-
respecting student would have been
ashamed to come to class in short pants,
and in a matter of years, high-water
khakis, chunky glasses, and penny loaf-
ers had become tragically uncool, the
domain of poindexter stereotypes, not
the nation’s elite young men. In a man-
ner reminiscent of the cabaret in Weimar
Berlin or shootouts and train robberies
in the so-called Wild West, Ivy League
campuses in the early 60s have created
an aesthetic that is more powerful in
contemporary remembrance than cul-
tural import at the time.
The power of the aesthetic lies in its
ability to evoke simpler, more pure times:
clean cut Ivy Leaguers stylishly but un-
selfconsciously sporting classic fashions
made in the US seems to hit all the right
buttons, making Take Ivy a showcase of
authenticity. Contemporary popular
culture cries out for the authentic in the
face of ironic and short-lived trends: the
nostalgia unearthed by Take Ivy fits in
neatly next to the current popularity of
vinyl records, “craft” beer and local food.
But a second look reveals that the book
has a dubious case in that regard. It’s not
an anthropological study, but a guide to
help mimic the particular “Ivy” style of
the photographed students. It was cre-
ated by Japanese writers with
little stake in creating an au-
thentic and impartial account of
their subject. Even the object of
the recommended mimicry, the
’60s Ivy League, is itself a sort
of fantasy world: as we have
seen, it’s very shape was determined by
systematic manipulation based on class,
race, and gender.
A quick review of fantasy-
driven magazine ads and theatrical
fashion shows, however, reveals that
so much that is appealing in clothing
is in fact based on fantasy. These fan-
tasies—in Take Ivy and otherwise—
often indulge in the unethical and
inauthentic. Thinking aesthetically
without considering its basis, may,
however, be unavoidable when dealing
with clothing; it would be quite a bur-
den to be forced to consider the cultur-
al implications of your attire in front of
the mirror every morning. In that case,
if the particular fantasy of Ivy League
authenticity is your thing, Take Ivy is
an excellent guide for determining how
many oxford cloth button-down shirts
it’s appropriate to own.
CHRIS COHEN B’64 is unavoidable
when dealing with clothing.
13
Arts
O T
THE SPECTACLE OF SUFFERING IN
CONTEMPORARY ART
T
by Natasha
Pradhan
he emergence of an
apocalyptic aesthetic
is society coping—or
rather, becoming one
with—the horrifying nature of world af-
fairs and its human remnants. The very
landscape we inhabit is crowded with
images of mass injustice, environmental
collapse, and a blurring of the human
face by technology. The context in which
we live and consume makes us complicit
in much of this violence. The societal
self today is both criminal and victim
from the moment in which one ceases
to dream each morning. Desperate at-
tempts to find ourselves within this de-
structive maze often become symptoms
of an abhorrent consumerism that leaves
us even more out of touch than we were
at the outset (Eat, Pray, Love anyone?).
The radical form of art, in its aesthet-
ic potency, reinvents the contemporary
landscape and the way in which we in-
hale this toxic existence. Aesthetes, cu-
rators, designers, and the sentient global
audience are embracing work that is
documentary and exploratory of every-
day catastrophe. Berlin’s Biennale, which
closed last month, took that which is
terrorizing in the everyday and forced
it into the space of art. The aestheticiza-
tion of contemporary tragedy is at once
a form of rather unorthodox escapism
and yet a realism that is all too real. The
BP oil spill, class segregation, and state-
inflicted terror are the subject matter for
artists that work with our own physical-
ity in fashion. Tragedy—an art form—is
deeply integrated into the cultural tapes-
try of our time.
T H E A L L-­TO O -­ R E A L
I have more faith in conveying human
experience in its raw immediacy rather
than as a distanced factual phenom-
enon. Alternative channels and spaces
that allow for a sharing of events less re-
stricted to rational narratives or falsely
“grounded” explanations, as in the mass
news media, have potential for genuine
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lineated art space was jolted into ques-
tion last month at the Berlin Biennale
upon stumbling into fresh coats of white
paint flooded with moving images of ee-
rily contemporary—that is to say, ongo-
ing—tragedy.
The sixth Berlin Biennale entitled
SEPTEMBER 16 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
what is waiting out there, asserts the tion and a tone far more radical than ity’s self-defeat that is further developed
power of art to pull viewers further into genuinely possible within the realm of throughout the Biennale.
reality rather than providing any sense direct politics. The Biennale had little to offer the
of detached pleasure. Employing grossly Among the other videos shown was purely pleasure-seeking, empathetically
intrusive vantage points, the audience is Echo by Nir Evron, which breaks down devoid audience; but part of its efficacy
unable to distance themselves from the the overwhelming visual sensations lay in the biennale’s prestige and abil-
ity to draw such an audience nonethe-
real ongoing events that they are put in present in an environment of protest
less. The artworks tended to unravel, on
contact with. In its documentary nature, and social distress. Archival images be-
a primordial level, images that we have
the Biennale come increas-
otherwise been numbed to. The artist
was dominated ingly pixilated
by video works, “I appreciated that until we can does not manufacture beauty within
contemporary tragedy. Rather, the tragic
many of which identify only
seemed dry at
first glance. It
this piece was being colors that still
retain their as-
moment is, and the artist only makes it
visible to us in its affective materiality.
was clear that
there was little
experienced in sociation to a
more complex
We are in a more open frame of mind, to
say the least, while seated on the floor of
image. Minerva a dilapidated department store before a
curatorial inten-
tion to shock, nor the context of the Cuevas’ Dis- looped film of IDF soldiers obstructing
provide a source sidence invites a band of schoolchildren than we are
of lazy pleasure Biennale, a space that us to be hyper-
observant in
when tuned in to similar content during
a news broadcast. Neither fact nor lan-
to the visitors.
Curator Kathrin
Rhomberg said
fosters openness of an impassioned
environment
guage is at stake in the space of art for
art’s sake—or in the context of the Bien-
nale, art for reality’s sake. Here we are
of individuals
at a press confer-
ence that the in- perception and a tone collectively as- not presented with anything that feigns
tention of much serting their to be all-encompassing or inclusive. We
of the all-too-real far more radical than humanity. Fea-
turing protest
are invited to enter into another’s con-
sciousness as an observant, feeling be-
imagery exhib-
ited is partially
to “disturb the
genuinely possible footage shot in
Mexico, Cue-
ing. The emphasis in most of these works
is not placed on creative vision, but on
affective sight—when shared, a source
vas’ film is an
pleasure-orient-
ed Western gaze.” within the realm of opportunity of genuine empathy.
Much of the to experience
non-fictional im- direct politics.” public artwork
of dissident
D I S M E M B E R E D I N T H E FAC E
O F B E AU T Y
agery demanded
immediate action signs and mes- The purposefully sterile fine art space
fosters a heightened sense of perception
in light of the direness of the situation saging. All that is Solid Melts Into Air by
and enables us to, at least temporarily,
portrayed. Avi Mograbi, an Israeli artist, Mark Boulous consists of two channels
abandon much cultural residue from the
created Details 2 & 3, in which we experi- on opposite sides of the space in which
exterior world. I do not by any means
ence a prolonged confrontational inter- two deeply implicated realities are con-
gesture that art is restricted to its own
action between the artist and a group of fronted. The sounds and sights of the
realm of galleries, openings, internation-
Israeli soldiers controlling a checkpoint Niger Delta and at the Chicago Mer-
al biennials, or theoretically saturated
in the West Bank. Moments of the film cantile Exchange come together for the
catalogs. The white-walled art museum,
are nauseating, particularly one instance viewer making powerful unspoken con-
however, reinforces the meditative, and
when several small children traveling nections. Petrit Halilaj employed a large
alienating quality in absorbing aesthetic
alone are prevented from crossing a path defunct space to install rural structures
that is homeward bound. In the fore- with an eerie hollowness surrounded by content. In an atmosphere of such radi-
ground, the soldiers react aggressively to live chickens. It was a desperate cry to cal openness, even conceptions of the
self are dismembered. Strolling past col-
the filmmaker’s agitations and, in stay- revert to an aesthetic that we have long
ors in a museum, we fold away from our-
ing true to their duty, are blinded from abandoned. The installation, The places
selves to become silent onlookers. We
empathy, highlighting the hopeless na- I’m looking for, my dear, are utopian places,
are unraveled from the distractive com-
ture of the situation. they are boring and I don’t know how to
pulsion to act that pressures everyday
I felt downtrodden by the idea that make them real sets a tone of human-
this institutional art setting is one of
very few in which such sentiment can
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“Neither fact nor language is at stake
the more time I spent roaming within
the works, the less I pegged preexisting in the space of art for art’s sake – or
associations and political fervor to the
already rage-filled installations. I appre- in the context of the Biennale, art for
ciated that this piece was being experi-
enced in the context of the Biennale, a
space that fosters openness of percep-
reality’s sake.”
THEINDY.ORG
“Much of the criticism of Meisel’s work
points at the inf lammatory juxtaposition
of tragedy and high fashion, and ignores the
content of the images all-together.”
interaction and are free as human beings
to observe.
Although the content before us in a

0%PIFSUZ
IJHIMJHIUT
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shots by Steven Meisel have the value of
gallery may certainly have relevance in
other realms, the explicitly artistic set-
ting inspires a hiatus from the saturated
toxicity of everyday life and an opening
to the raw experience of cringes, colors,
waves, beats. Without the tension of an
impending action that constrains us to a
pre-existing, socially defined identity, we
can genuinely reinvent ourselves in rela-
tion to what is being experienced in such
a space. The revolutionary capacity of the
artwork is here—in its potential to jolt

USBHFEZ‰
somebody out of his past self in a way that
is not contingent on a shared historical
consciousness or language.
This sort of aesthetic revolution is ten-
uous when juxtaposed with a more linear
conception of change. Brian O’Doherty,
a prominent creator and thinker of the
T
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say “Inside the White Cube: The Ideology
of the Gallery Space,” 1976: “Art exists in
a kind of eternity of display. This eternity
gives the gallery a limbolike status; one
has to have died already to be there. In-
deed the presence of that odd piece of fur-
niture, your own body, seems superfluous,
an intrusion.”
Is there an equilibrium between being
so open to and lost in the artwork that
one loses ties with rational continuity,
and maintaining the contextual self pos-
sessive of time and action? The confronta-
tional nature of many works in the Bien-
nale does not allow the viewer to distance
IJNTFMG
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stances. He has abandoned the traditional
the tension of art created with the intent
of sparking direct political action, for the
sonorous moment in which we experience
an artwork is a timeless one.
OUTFITTING THE C ATA -­
STROPHIC
The ongoing nature of tragedy prevents its
presence in artistic spheres from being ca-
thartic. It is a timeless visualization of ter-
ror that gains some semblance of continu-
ity in how it impacts our ability to digest
experience. Tragedy, as an envisioned and
embraced aesthetic, seeps out of the fine
art space to radically shift the contempo-
rary landscape.
Steven Meisel’s most recent contro-
versy appearing in Vogue Italia discovers
beauty, or perhaps simply respite, in dev-
astation. Meisel shot an editorial explic-
itly stated to confront the attempts to
conceal imagery of the BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico. The initial explosion in
April killed 11 workers and injured many
more. At the outset, the editors of Vogue
Italia share their intentions behind pub-
lishing this controversially received piece,
“Gli scatti di Steven Meisel hanno la valenza
del reportage e l’impatto dell’opera d’arte. Im-
magini forti, fatte per colpire, e che raccon-
tano una realta.” Loosely translated: These
reportage and the impact of the artwork.
Powerful, striking images that tell a real-
ity.
The images integrate inventive corpo-
ral designs by contemporary artists in-
cluding Hussein Chalayan, Haider Acker-
mann, Ann Demeulemeester, and the late
Alexander McQueen that are seamless
against the backdrop of the tragedy. The
artist captures the visceral terror of such
an incident but showcases it alongside the
human capacity to arrive at a sort of aes-
thetic harmony within an atmosphere of
demise.
Much of the criticism of Meisel’s work
points at the inflammatory juxtaposition
of tragedy and high fashion, and ignores
the content of the images all-together.
Allowing these works to speak for them-
selves, we witness of reinvention of space,
flesh, and corporeal forms.
Gareth Pugh, a young British designer
who thrives on a dark sculptural aesthetic
that discovers a fertile joy amidst the toxic
ruins of the modern age. In an interview
with Alex Fury of SHOWstudio in May of
this year, Pugh acknowledged the trans-
formation in his designs: “I don’t think I
make things to compliment your lifestyle.”
14
Arts
Rather, Pugh invents new forms of the
human species based on shifting circum-
catwalk show and encased his two latest
collections in tragically alluring videos,
the last of which is a dark treatise on plea-
sure entitled Joie de Vivre (by Ruth Hog-
ben, SHOWstudio.com). Placing the un-
nervingly real in the context of art creates
a necessary tension in how we experience
our own physicality within this world.
Realism in contemporary art, more
so than art which is explicitly escapist,
is the target of social and humanitarian
DSJUJDJTN
BOE
DPOUSPWFSTZ
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a most real phenomenon—demands to
be the subject matter of contemporary
art and of our contemplation. It is the
unbounded nature of art that lends form
and human spirit to our age—instigating
revolution from the primordial to the po-
litical.
NATASHA PR ADHAN ’12 is in mourn-
ing.
photo by Steven Meisel in “Water & Oil”
for Vogue Italia, August 2010.
15 S E P T E M B E R 16 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Opinions

B   W

NOTES FROM A FAMILY MEMBER’S TIME IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
by Sofie Ramos
Illustration by
the author
My older brother returned from his diers  who  want  to    go  to  war  to  increase   probably  hard  for  you  to  understand  but  I   KRZHYHU\WKLQJ¿WVWRJHWKHU'RQ¶WZRUU\
yearlong tour in Iraq in the middle of a their   rank   and   make   more   money.   It   just  don’t  think  about  it.  Most  people  in   about  what  the  military  is  actually  doing.  
cold April night last year. I waited with makes   pawns   into   knights,   knights   into   the  Army  don’t  care.  If  they  were  against   And  most  certainly,  don’t  give  out  any  in-­
his wife and my family for the plane to ELVKRSVELVKRSVLQWRNLQJV%XWWKHULVH it  they  wouldn’t  be  in  the  Army.” formation.  
arrive with a sign that read, “Welcome in   status   does   not   change   the   fact   that     This   detachment   may   pass   in   other     How   does   this   kind   of   lifestyle   and  
home Gabe!” We were so excited to see they  are  simply  obedient  pieces  in  a  game   industries,   but   the   stakes   in   the   military   training   affect   these   soldiers   beyond   the  
him after such a long and stressful sepa- that   is   not   their   own—a   game   between   are  too  high  and  the  bureaucracy  too  far-­ military?  What  happens  when  they  leave  
ration. When he finally arrived with the governments,   countries,   rulers,   parties   reaching   for   soldiers   to   be   so   indiffer-­ the   structured   military   bubble   and   are  
rest of the soldiers, we couldn’t even pick unrelated   to   the   lives   of   the   soldiers   at   ent.  The   work   they   do   affects   the   entire   thrown  back  into  the  chaotic,  unregulated  
him out of the crowd. They all looked the VWDNH:HGRQ¶WNQRZZKDWWKH\¶UH¿JKW ZRUOG,WLVDQH[SHULHQFHWKDWGUDVWLFDOO\ outside   world?   How   do   they   make   the  
same. We were only able to recognize ing   for.  We’re   not   allowed   to   know   and   changes  the  lives  of  its  employees  and  in   adjustment   from   being   a   small   piece   in  
him when he walked past us. He shot us QHLWKHU DUH WKH\ 7KH\ DUH ¿UPO\ FRQ many  cases  endangers  them.  It  is  also  an   a  well-­oiled  machine  to  controlling  their  
a smile and continued on with the group. trolled.   They   don’t   know   where   they’re   H[SHULHQFHWKDWVKDSHVWKHFKDUDFWHUVDQG RZQ OLYHV" 6ROGLHUV DUH VKDSHG WR ¿OO D
We waited as they went through their going  until  they  arrive.  They  don’t  know   behaviors   of   people   for   the   rest   of   their   VSHFL¿F UROH DQG ZKHQ WKDW¶V RYHU WKH\
Army rituals inside while we sat with what  they’re  doing  until  they  do  it.  They   lives.  A   job   in   the   military   requires   sol-­ are   left   on   their   own.   The   military   uses  
other anxious families on the bleachers. DUHOLYLQJLQEDGIDLWKDVH[LVWHQWLDOFULPL diers   to   leave   their   homes   and   families   and  abuses  people  for  their  own  purposes  
When he was finally able to leave forma- nals—abandoning   their   freedom   by   ac-­ ¿UVW IRU WUDLQLQJ WKHQ IRU D SHUPDQHQW and  then  spits  them  out  without  much  di-­
tion, he came over to us seeming happy, cepting   the   absolute   control   of   their   su-­ base  in  the  US,  and  often  for  deployments   rection  or  help  at  all,  permanently  trans-­
but very subdued. He gave us half hugs periors,  avoiding  responsibility  by  hiding   overseas.  As  much  as  it  is  a  job,  it  is  also   IRUPHGE\WKHLUWUDLQLQJDQGH[SHULHQFHV
and barely spoke. He has always been re- EHKLQG RUGHUV 7KH\ DUH GRLQJ H[DFWO\ a  way  of  life. This is not an argument against the
served, but it was difficult to see him so what  they  are  supposed  to  be  doing.     I  know,  however,  that  the  military  can   military; it is an argument against its
disinterested when we were so enthusi-   I’m   told   that   this   argument   is   empty.   EH D EHQH¿FLDO H[SHULHQFH IRU PDQ\ RI irresponsible and careless abuse of the
astic to have him back. His eyes lacked How  else  can  the  military  operate?  How   its   soldiers.   It   saved   my   brother’s   life.   lives of its soldiers. Those lost youths
passion. He was indifferent, unrespon- can  any  kind  of  order  be  maintained  if  the   He   joined   the  Army   because   he   had   no   who lack self-reflection and determina-
sive, and jaded. knowledge   of   the   military’s   operations   choice.  The  last  two  years  of  high  school   tion are being swindled into serving in
  I  was  so  upset  to  hear  that  he  decided   were  known  to  all  of  their  soldiers?  How   he   began   selling   and   using   marijuana,   an institution that seeks out such weak-
to  deploy  again  in  February  of  this  year,   could  anything  get  done?  Camilo  Mejía,   cocaine,  LSD,  and  prescription  drugs;;  he   nesses and uses them to its advantage.
this   time   to   Afghanistan.   When   I   asked   an  Iraq  War  veteran,  criticizes  this  system   stole  car  stereos,  and  shoplifted.  He  was   Why are they allowed to take advantage
him   why   he   keeps   volunteering,   his   re-­ on  his  website: heading   in   the   direction   of   becoming   a   of people like this? And why do we ig-
sponse   was   simple:   “So   I   can   get   paid     An  empire  cannot  survive  without  an   serious   criminal.   My   parents   eventually   nore this exploitation? They give them
more  and  get  promoted.”  I  know  that  he   imperial  military,  a  military  whose  mem-­ kicked  him  out  of  the  house  for  the  safety   a uniform and maybe some medals and
would   have   been   deployed   anyway   and   bers   do   not   question   the   orders   of   their   RI P\ VLVWHU DQG PH +H ZDV ¿QDOO\ DU we, as citizens of the United States, are
that   volunteering   rather   than   waiting   for   superiors,   a   military   whose   members   UHVWHG IRU ¿JKWLQJ WKUHH PRQWKV DIWHU KH expected to honor and look up to them.
orders  to  be  deployed  means  more  mon-­ who   choose   to   refuse,   do   so   quietly   to   graduated  high  school,  and  was  given  the   They promise a better life for people
ey.   I   understand   the   strategy,   but   volun-­ save  their  skins,  a  military  whose  mem-­ choice  to  go  to  jail  or  join  the  Army.  If  he   in need—in need of money, in need of
teering  twice  in  such  a  short  span  of  time   bers   would   rather   die   and   kill   against   hadn’t  joined,  he  would  probably  be  dead   structure, in need of purpose. But I see
and  under  such  dangerous  circumstances   their   moral   judgments   than   question   the   by   now.   The   Army   gave   him   structure,   something very different in the reality
LVKDUGIRUPHWRDFFHSW+LVRI¿FHUVFDOO authority  of  their  command.   VKRZHGKLPGLVFLSOLQHEXLOWXSKLVFRQ¿ of the military. I see my brother with
him  ambitious  and  brave.  They  write  let-­ To  question  that  authority  is  an  impos-­ dence,  gave  him  a  purpose  and  gave  him   buzzed hair and big muscles, bad gram-
ters  to  my  parents  praising  his  hard  work   sibility  in  the  military.  Soldiers  are  trained   money.   His   state   of   mind   has   certainly   mar and little ambition, emotionless and
every   so   often.   He   is   a   sergeant   now   at   in  discipline  probably  more  than  anything   improved  and  I  know  that  would  not  have   disinterested, who just re-enlisted for
the  age  of  22  and  is  working  to  become   else.  It  becomes  a  habit,  a  way  of  life.  It   been  possible  without  the  Army.   another four years. I want his life to be
DQ RI¿FHU %XW DW ZKDW H[SHQVH GRHV KLV means   following   orders—the   military     The   military   has   helped   many   of   its   rich and meaningful. I want him to care
success  in  the  military  come? must  be  a  cohesive  force  in  order  to  have   soldiers   in   similar   ways,   but   the   truth   about the world around him. What I see
 %HIRUH*DEH  left  for  the  second  time,   any  kind  of  authority  in  the  world.  It  feels   LV WKDW WKH\ H[SORLW WKH YXOQHUDELOLW\ RI is a tool that the military has created for
and   even   for   a   while   after   he   arrived   in   good   to   be   a   part   of   something   big   and   people  who  don’t  have  any  other  options.   its unknown purposes. And there is no
Afghanistan,   he   didn’t   know   where   he   powerful.  It  is  a  way  to  give  meaning  to  a   When   there   is   no   hope,   there   is   always   change in sight. People continue to join
would  be  going  or  what  he  would  be  do-­ life  that  might  have  been  severely  lacking   the  military.  It’s  true  that  it  will  force  its   the military for the same reasons. The
LQJ:KHQKH¿QDOO\IRXQGRXWZKDWKLV in  it  prior  to  a  military  career.   soldiers   into   discipline,   but   only   after   military continues to seek them out.
job   was,   he   was   not   allowed   to   tell   us    7KH PLOLWDU\ LV QR SODFH WR H[SUHVV they  hand  over  their  lives  and  minds.  To   They certainly aren’t looking to amend
anything  about  it.  All  we  knew  was  that   opinions  about  its  operations,  and  in  my   spectators   of   my   brother’s   life,   it   seems   their internal operations. And no one
he  was  following  the  orders  given  to  him.   H[SHULHQFH VROGLHUV WHQG WR DYRLG WKHVH a  good  alternative  to  a  life  of  crime,  but   on the inside is questioning these opera-
%\ ZKRP ZH GLGQ¶W NQRZ )RU ZKDW kinds   of   opinions   altogether.   When   I   I   see   him   in   a   vacant,   thoughtless   trap.   tions. Anyone who questions is thrown
purpose,   we   didn’t   know.   We   were   not   asked  my  brother  what  he  thought  about   “Just  do  what  they  tell  you  to  do  and  you   out or silenced. And with no questions,
allowed   to   know. It   is   common   practice   the   military’s   objectives   in   the   Middle   will  do  great  in  the  Army,”  I  have  heard   what can change?
for  the  Army  to  keep  their  soldiers  as  un-­ East,  he  said, from  my  brother  too  many  times.  Just  do  
informed  as  possible.  They  wait  until  the     “I  don’t  really  care  if  there  is  a  war  or   what   they   tell   you   to   do.   Just   don’t   ask   SOFIE R AMOS B’ 13 is doing exactly
very  last  moment  to  tell  them  what  they   not.   I   like   being   deployed   because   I   get   questions.  Just  focus  on  what  you’re  sup-­ what she’s supposed to be doing.
will  be  doing  or  where  they  will  be  going.   paid  more,  but  other  than  that  I  don’t  re-­ posed  to  do.  Don’t  worry  about  what  ev-­
7KLVKDVEHHQWKHFDVHIRU*DEHVLQFHKH ally   care   because   it   doesn’t   really   affect   eryone   else   is   doing.     Don’t   worry   bout  
joined  the  military  about  four  years  ago.   PHH[FHSWIRUWKRVHGHSOR\PHQWV7KDW
  The   military   creates     ambitious   sol-­
THEINDY.ORG
Screaming for
Gelato
T
oo hot to eat, too
hot to sleep, too
hot to lug furni-
ture and boxes to
and fro. Though
the sudden ad-
vent of fall now
makes it seem a
distant memory, the first days of Sep-
tember were unbearable. Not exactly
the reprieve I was expecting after three
months in Venice, where the summer
heat was excruciating, just as everyone
had warned me it would be.
The Venice heat was like those first
few Providence days, minus the shady
trees and sporadic air conditioning: a
tree in Venice is an anomaly, and the
heat stagnates in the canals and slanting
crumbling buildings that line the narrow

WBOJMMByPS
WFHFUBCMF
:FT

isfy American cravings. Unsung hero award goes to this delicious and friendly family
pedestrian streets. It’s the sort of op-
pressive humidity that robs you of all ap-
petite—ideal for swimsuit season on the
Lido beach, not so helpful for a foodie
looking to indulge in the best that Italy’s
cuisine has to offer, namely heavy pas-
tas, wines, and cheeses. But the greatest
indulgence is saved for last, to save me
and Italians, in our time of need: gelato.
G E L ATO D O E S N OT M E A N I C E
CREAM
Actually, it just means frozen. Gelato is
to conventional American ice cream as
fresh, milky mozzarella is to the chalky,
grated white stuff in resealable bags in
the dairy aisle. What elevates gelato is
the technique and philosophy behind it.
Of course you can find good ice cream in
America (check out Mill’s Tavern here in
Providence—101 N. Main St—for an ex-
quisite basil flavored one) but the beauty

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CPUIFS
XJUI
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does not, as I originally suspected, signify a monopoly on gelato market in Southern
of Italy is that, while some are certainly
better than others, and while styles vary
from North to South along with the dia-
lects, every gelato place consistently pro-
vides a good scoop.
Gelato first joined the ranks of great
desserts in the sixteenth century, when
it was the winning dish in a Renaissance
version of the Food Network Challenge.
The court of Catherine di Medici in Flor-
ence held a contest to find the best inno-
vative dessert to be served at one of her
banquets, and this frozen sweet took the
cake, so to speak. Since then the art has
only been perfected further.
The gelato base can be made either by
the traditional hot process of pasteuriza-
tion, or the newer, more convenient cold
process using a prepared mix. As with
ice cream, air is beaten into this mixture
as it freezes. Less air is incorporated in
making gelato, creating a thicker, dens-
er product than ice cream, which tends
to be airier and grainier. Gelato is usu-
ally made in smaller batches, and quick-
frozen at a slightly warmer temperature
than conventional ice cream, allowing it
to keep its silky texture without being
so cold that it masks the true flavor. The
high content of heavy cream in ice cream
16
Gastronomy
e S we e t Life in
V enice
t h
g
il n
c al
Re
also covers up the flavoring, while gelato
is made with more milk, letting natural
flavors shine through.
The good news: gelato has a lower but-
terfat content than ice cream. The bet- by Belle Cushing
ter news: it tastes better too. American N I C K ’ S I C E C R E A M A N D G E L ATO
ice creams typically contain fourteen to An overlooked strip mall next to a billboard-ridden highway seems an unlikely loca-
eighteen percent butterfat, while gelato tion to find Providence’s only homemade gelato. One spoonful, however, will dispel
contains only six to ten percent. Creami- all doubts about Nick’s, a quintessential father-daughter business that has been a
er, healthier, yummier…why don’t we all part of Providence since its start as a frozen lemonade truck in the seventies. Nick
eat gelato? traveled to Italy in the seventies, and brought back the equipment and the lore of
gelato-making to Providence. At this point, he catered to the Italian-American popu-
DECISIONS, DECISIONS lation—the only ones who knew about the frozen treat. His daughter Tina has now
Billowing clouds of gelato in every shade taken over. Well taught by her father, she continues to use the traditional hot process
tease you from behind the glass in the to make the gelato right in the store. The milk and cream are carefully pasteurized
display case. How could you possibly and allowed to sit for 24 hours before being made into actual gelato. They offer 26
choose just one flavor from among the flavors, plus seasonal rotations—the creative genius of Tina and her family member
mouthwatering choices, each mound taste-testers. Classics such as hazelnut and zuppa inglese, a butterscotch-like flavor,
practically glowing with its silky sheen? cater to those nostalgic for Italy, while Peanut Butter Oreo and Cinnamon Roll sat-
$IPDPMBUF
vegetable! My favorite gelateria in Venice joint, well worth the drive.
served flavors like chioggia radicchio, ar- 1401 Douglas Ave
tichoke, celery, and orange and arugula. 401.353.1111
Don’t make a face just yet. Vegetables V E N DA R AV I O L I
hold up surprisingly well in the creamy I walked into this Italian market in Federal Hill and everywhere I looked, culinary
setting, combining the ultra freshness memories tugged at my heartstrings: cheese, meats, bread, homemade pastas, pre-
of a farmer’s market with a touch of pared vegetables, and of course, gelato. Visually, the gelato bar was just what I was
subtle sweetness. Or spice it up with looking for. Though they had only a limited flavor selection, the pans of gelato shone
cardamom, cinnamon, or ginger, which in perfect fluffiness. The consistency was the most convincing of all the places I tried;
proved a fiery tour of a not-so-typical the first spoonful was almost reluctant to leave the rest of the cup, so thick and dense
spice cabinet. Then there is the favorite was the mixture. Though I was slightly disappointed by the iciness of the center,
of Italian kids, or of adults still unwill- breaking from gelato’s general creaminess, the cappuccino flavor was certainly in-
ing to relinquish the pleasures of child- tense. Their gelato is not made in-house, nor in Italy, but is made according Italian
hood: fior di latte. Literally meaning milk tradition by Berto’s Gelato based out of Phoenix, Arizona. A wonderful collection of
flower, and made only of milk, cream, Italian goods, though gelato does not seem to be their highest priority.
and sugar, it is simplicity and unpreten- 265 Atwells Avenue
tiousness, refreshing in its plainness. 401.421.9105
Though relatively unknown in America,
fior di latte is a staple in Italian gelaterie F E D E R A L H I L L R E S TAU R A N T S
and is a foolproof quality control meth- Mediterraneo, Siena, and Pane e Vino restaurants all get their gelato delivered
od for a gelateria. If this flavor fails the from Bindi, a gelato purveyor based out of Milan with outposts all over the US. This
UFTU
eat your scoop in a coppa or cona, as is, New England, merely a very high quality food service. What began as a local, fami-
or topped with whipped cream. I would ly-owned pasticceria has grown into a worldwide specialty food exporting company.
recommend pairing your bacio, a choco- Providence’s only gelato directly from the motherland, it showcases concentrated
late hazelnut flavor as sweet as the kiss flavors and a smooth texture, and despite the long journey, keeps the creamy, fresh-
that its name signifies, with a bottle of made taste. Mango and bacio were particularly satisfying.
Prosecco overlooking a canal (Italian
Pane e Vino Mediterraneo Siena
lover optional).
365 Atwells Ave 134 Atwells Ave  238 Atwells Ave
401.223.2230w 401.331.7760 401.521.3311
G E L ATO A S A WAY O F L I F E
Everyone eats gelato, from schoolchil-
BELLE CUSHING ’13 would take radicchio over vanilla any day.
dren panting after a game of soccer in
the campo (square) to suited business-
men on the vaporetto (boat version of
public transport) home from work. It is S PE C I A L A DV E RT I S IN G S E C T ION
an escape from the heat, a long stroll in
the evening, a return to the slow pace Fan   o f   Pink  Fl oy d/ R oge r  W a te rs? ? ?
of traditional Italian life. And when the
Venetian heat comes to Providence, all Are   yo u   a   W oma n  21+  una tta che d? ? ?
I crave is a big, dripping cone of gelato.
So began my quest around Providence to I   have   f l oor  se a ts  8th  row ...
find somewhere to provide that fix. For-
tunately, I’m not the only one screaming Madis o n   Squ a re  G a rde n...10 / 5/ 20 10 ...
for gelato. There are a number of estab-
lishments willing to give you a taste of No  Expe cta ti ons...
Italian summer, whether it is in ninety-
degree heat, or in the middle of the dead Jus t   an   Adventure ...S e e i ng  “ The  W a l l ” ...
Providence winter. After all, we have
gondolas in our canal too. Co ntact. ..dye r_ tm@ ya hoo.com
17 S E P T E M B E R 16 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Literary

by Valerie Hsiung
P P Illustration
by Michael
Lapadula and
A silence.
P R O LO G U E . Andrew Seiden
VIII
Under normal conditions, it would not be possible to speak of the horses. They are any color here. A table! A table! A table!
Their actions. When the sky became white in the morning, their actions did not resemble them.
Among the rocks, the feet stumble. It is still not possible to substitute from one rock to all of the The sun sets.
rocks. It is impossible to merge from the stumbling feet to one rock, to substitute from the stumbling
foot to all of the rocks. In this instance, no voice of anxiety is speaking. A beach exists in this world, A table on the beach—
a beach of any color. This week, the weather hasn’t been perfect as usual. It is always like that,
against you, changing right when you arrive. At night, it is necessary to go deeper into the caves The sun rises.
to make a fire if you want to sit on the beach. There, the opportunity for not speaking at all. It isn’t
true that some of the rocks are sand and some of the sand is rocks: there are rocks and then a lot of A table on the beach—
sand everywhere.
*9
A house that has all the properties of a normal house but it can be inverted upside-down and sym- On the beach the lights flicker on
metry in theory implies functional symmetry, but the two families who live in this inversion have
no idea that the other family in their house exists. The babe marionette shadow is lying on its back, on the left of the scaffolding. Its wailing
continues. It is punctuated by bursts of silence. It is punctuated by moments of contortions
The chief marionette shadow, with an accordion, walks onto the scaffolding from the left. Melan- of its back, shifting positions and erections of its spine, uncontrolled spasms in its legs.
choly, memories that come to the eyes of the guilty patrons. It is unclear whether the memories are The nurse marionette shadow, who is also the babe marionette shadow, comes to its side.
melancholy or whether they make them look melancholy. The chief marionette shadow walks in a
straight line across the scaffolding. It takes its time. On the beach the lights flicker off

A thick, red string, attached to the chief marionette shadow’s ankle, appears longer and longer as it 9
walks further to the right of the scaffolding. By the time it walks off the scaffolding, the red string The babe marionette shadow is standing on the left of the scaffolding. It cracks pistachios.
continues to be pulled from the left of the scaffolding even without the chief marionette shadow on The nurse marionette shadow is standing on the right of the scaffolding. It cracks pistachios.
the scaffolding anymore, until the battered body of the babe marionette shadow appears. The red
string is tied around the babe marionette shadow’s neck. I am going to sit down now The babe marionette shadow sits down It cracks pistachios The
nurse cracks pistachios
The babe marionette shadow is dragged slowly across the scaffolding, following the path of the chief I am going to stand up now The babe marionette shadow stands up It cracks pistachios The
marionette shadow. Just before it—or, rather, its body—is pulled off of the right scaffolding, the nurse cracks pistachios
babe marionette shadow turns its head to the patrons. It gives a nice smile. I am going to lie down now The babe marionette shadow lies down on its stomach It cracks
pistachios The nurse cracks pistachios
On the beach the sun sets.
On the beach the lights flicker
I
On the beach the sun rises. 9*
The babe marionette shadow approaches the nurse marionette shadow.
The babe marionette shadow who enjoys washing the dishes. Good morning. I call myself Will you crack my back? Step on my back?
Babe. What?
The chief marionette shadow who can wait for the washer of the dishes. (repeats) Good .Z
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morning. I call myself Babe. A silence.
The babe marionette shadow looks at the chief marionette shadow. No, I cannot.
A silence. I am afraid. To break your back. A silence.
This is not funny. The babe marionette shadow laughs.
My back is starting to hunch over. I have no posture anymore. I cannot sleep at night. A
The chief marionette shadow laughs. silence.
Or in the day time, I cannot sleep at all whenever. A silence.
On the beach the sun sets.
The sun rises. :PVMM
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II A silence.
Babe. The babe marionette shadow cracks pistachios. The nurse marionette shadow cracks pista-
Beware, the sunburn. chios.
The chief looks up at the sky. Babe takes a sunflower out of the vase.
At this hour? The beach lights flicker
Babe laughs heartily. The babe marionette shadow smacks the chief marionette shadow in
the face with a sunflower. The chief smiles, hands in its pocket. 9**
The sound of the babe’s punctuated gasping.
The sun sets, the sun rises.
The beach lights flicker
III
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UPEBZ The babe marionette shadow is lying on its stomach, on the right of the scaffolding. Its gasp-
No. It is not possible. ing continues. It is punctuated by bursts of silence. It is punctuated by moments of flailing
The babe marionette shadow seems sad. It walks away from the chief marionette shadow. its arms and legs about. It takes a big breath of air. It laughs.
Several seconds pass. The babe returns.
The babe marionette shadow breaks a raw egg on the chief’s head and face. And then another The beach lights flicker
one. And then another.
9***
But all is possible! I couldn’t sleep, they were cracking pistachios all night, they sometimes sound like footsteps
at a party, footsteps of people at a party...
The sun sets. The sun rises
The sun rises.
9*7
IV The nurse marionette shadow sitting in the chair on the left of the scaffolding. It is doing
The sound of the telephone ringing. The babe marionette shadow picks up a seashell, puts it paper work, using a calculator.
to its ear. The babe stands on the right. Maybe let’s get out of the pistachio business...
A silence.
It is who, it is who The babe cracks a pistachio. It puts the nut in its mouth. It does not agree with it.
asks the babe marionette shadow... A silence. Can I help you with that?

The beach lights fade to total darkness. The sun rises

The sun sets. A pistachio tree on the beach
The sun rises. The lights flicker off
The sun Intentional yes
97
V The babe is lying on its back on the left of the scaffolding.
A silence. The nurse goes over to it.
She kisses his hand, brings it to her cheek. And they say if it hurts you if you press behind your knees, then you have to press it really
hard until you don’t feel the soreness in your back anymore.
The lights flicker The nurse marionette shadow begins to press on the backs of the babe marionette shadow’s
knees. It is committed.
This is my husband. The babe looks like it is in pain.
Does it hurt or no?
The lights flicker The babe looks uncomfortable. No, no, it tickles, it tickles... Stop, it tickles...
The nurse marionette shadow holds it still. It is committed.
VI The babe marionette shadow laughs. It hurts, it hurts! The babe laughs heartily.
Where is my gun It hurts, please, stop, please stop.
furiously shouts the chief marionette shadow The babe marionette shadow looks like it is in pain.
But you will never find it The babe laughs.
soothes the babe marionette shadow Please, it hurts, it hurts! The nurse stops.
But it is a waste No, don’t stop, if it hurts it means you have to keep pressing until the soreness in my back
resigns falsely the chief marionette shadow goes away.

The lights flicker 97*

The sun sets.
VII A table on the beach replaces the scaffolding.
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the sunflower as if it were a real marionette shadow-— backhand, several times. The babe E P I LO G U E .
throws the vase at the son. The son marionette shadow catches it.
Yes, it is true, there are commercials from the sky. A horse, who would be sick of all this music if it
Gift! could hear it, who was stumbling on the rocks—its ashes are used to put the fire out so that you can
The babe flees. restart it in the deeper cave. It is important to follow the path of the horse who was only a memory
ago stumbling on the rocks; the full backside of the horse is a direction of the storm. At all times, it
is necessary to approach the horse with these words aloud, these ones in particular, not the words
surrounding them in the beach, in time or space.
Illustration by Katie Gui

by Katie Gui

FRIDAY | 17
9:15 PM
JENNY and JOHNNY with
Jenny Lewis & Johnathan
Rice. You are what you love and
not what loves you back. At The
Met, Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main
St. Pawtucket. $16.50.
10 PM
“Blood From a Turnip,”
Rhode Island’s oldest late night
puppet salon. Soaring, inspirational,
paradigm-shifting expressions of
puppetry. At the PerishableTheatre,
95 Empire Street, Providence. $5.
SATURDAY | 18
ALL DAY (Thru Sep. 25)
First Annual New England
Festival of Ibero-American
Cinema (NEFIAC). Includes
screenings of “Strange Things:
Children of Haiti” and a panel
discussion of “QUEER Expressions
in Latin American Cinema.” Various
times and locations in Providence.
http://watsoninstitute.org/clacs for
details. $5/$10.
2 PM
Urban Barn Dance. All ages
and all abilities welcome to do
the cupid shuffle, the macarena,
the do-si-do. Live band. At AS220,
115 Empire Street, Providence. $3
individual / $8 family.
Paintings by Nick Carter
7 PM
First Annual International
Observe the Moon Night.
Are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby,
are you having fun? At the Frosty
Drew Observatory, 62 Park Lane,
Ninigret Park, Charlestown. FREE.
SUNDAY | 19
10 AM – 12 PM
Improvisational Tribal
Belly Dance with Neylan.
Old folks need to wiggle too.
Technically for senior citizens, but
perhaps they wouldn’t mind an
audience, or a partner. ;) Stop by for
group improvisation in the style of
flamenco, north African, traditional
Indian belly-dancing, or a fusion
of the aforementioned. Perishable
Theater, Providence. $13 drop
in, $60 for six classes on a never-
expiring card.
1:30 PM
Prepare to be Scared:
New Classic Horror Movie
Matinee Series. Because you
always wanted to get your freak
on at the public library. Providence
Public Library, 150 Empire Street. $2.
10 AM – 4 PM
The Wonders of
Carnivorous Plants. Feed me
Seymour! Blithewood Mansion, 101
Ferry Road, Bristol. $10
MONDAY | 20
3 PM
Public Lecture by South
Korean Ambassador Han
Duk-soo. Hear Mr. Han, former
prime minister of South Korea, deliver
a lecture on US-Korean relations.
Pembroke Hall Room 305, Brown
University. FREE.
TUESDAY | 21
9 AM – 10 AM
Free Mouth Guards for
Student Athletes. Watch yo’
mouth! Grab your mouthguards
while they’re free. Brought to you
by Orthodontic Specialists of New
England with American Association of
Orthodontists and NFL Legend Emmitt
Smith to ‘Play it Safe.’ 23 Commerce
Way, Seekonk, MA 02771.
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Laboratory Safety Training.
Carol didn’t wear her safety goggles;
now she doesn’t need them. Don’t be
Carol. Barus & Holley, Room 190. FREE.
WEDNESDAY | 22
7:30 PM
Pre-Dating Speed Dating. If
you’renotadashing,singleprofessional,
come fake it anyway under the
guidance of Pre-Dating®, purportedly
the world’s largest speed dating service.
They promise it won’t be awkward.
1060 Hope St. Providence. $25
9 PM
Wiz Khalifa with Big KRIT.
Shawty, whatchu doin tonight? Doin
tonight? Doin tonight? I’m all up here
cause you lookin right, You lookin
right, You lookin right. At Lupo’s
Heartbreak Hotel. $16 advance, $18
day of.
12 PM – 6 PM
Photography Exhibit: The
Providence Preservation
Society’s Ten Most
Endangered Properties. Burnin’
down the house. Chabot Gallery, 379
Atwells Avenue, Providence. FREE.
THURSDAY | 23
2:30 PM
A reading by poet Keith
Waldrop, National Book Award
winner. At McCormack Family
Theater, 70 Brown St. Providence.
FREE.
7PM
Southeast New England Film
Festival presents five short
films produced by graduates of the
RI Film Collaborative that deal with
drunk driving awareness. Organizers
say, “Stay on the SENE... live well,
drive safe, be creative!” At the RISD
auditorium, Providence. FREE.
8 PM
Anti-Flag w/s/g Prayers For
Atheists, The Menzingers. Drink,
drank, punk. At The Met, 1005 Main
St., Pawtucket. $15/$17.