1990

The middle muddle
January 11
To start the new decade, Steven Stark predicted that Americans would head toward the center. What would then happen to our Bush-Republican White House and Democratic Congress in the political landscape of the '90s?

Voter participation is likely to decline. This general lack of interest also means that political allegiances will be weak; neither party will command an ideological majority. Political stalemates will be frequent, and the '90s should see a series of closer elections, good news for the Democrats on the presidential level and for the Republicans on the congressional level.

On the edge
January 18
What, you thought the Providence Place Mall controversy was a new thing? We don't think so. Tom Sgouros, Jr. outlined just how desperate the Capital Commission was to get something going on down there.

The commission is willing to compromise on points that, while seemingly insignificant now, may turn out to be important in the end. For example, the guidelines call for developers to build to the edge of the lot in order to create street views that look like a city. The architect, Marilyn Taylor, described a busy street where buildings go right to the edges of their lots, abutting the sidewalk. Her plan was that the center not turn out like an office park. "I wonder if some of the planned projects will maintain that," she said.

Birth of a band
January 25
The break-up of the Schemers was more than a bit jarring after nearly a decade of energizing the local scene, but Mark Cutler's new project earned him long-overdue national exposure. Jim Macnie detailed the birth of the Raindogs. Mark Cutler and Emerson Torrey were playing and singing at Providence's Backstreet Bar &Grill when two Red Rockers and one Silly Wizard walked in.

"The song we heard was `Walter Jumped,' " recalls Scottish fiddle virtuoso Johnny Cunningham with a solemn reverence in his voice. "It sounds ridiculous, but it was right then that we knew that this was our man."

"This" was veteran songwriter Cutler, who for years had led Providence's most promising and satisfying band, the Schemers. During the early '80s, their bold-faced guitar rock set the standard for the Rhode Island club scene. "Our" was the initial shell of the Raindogs, whose stunning first record, Lost Souls, has just been released on the revived Atco label.

Family affair
February 1
When two women brought their father to trial for abuses that allegedly took place 18 years earlier, Rhode Island had a landmark court case on its hands. Lisa Prevost went over what exactly the ruling was, and what it meant for possible incest victims.

In a case experts are calling a milestone for Rhode Island, the two women are suing their father for allegedly causing them post-traumatic symptoms such as depression, anxiety, guilt, frigidity, emotional numbness, lack of self-esteem and internalized anger. But because the sisters say the alleged abuses stopped in 1972, [the father's lawyer] argued that the three-year limit for legal action had expired. In a precedent-setting decision last month, however, Judge Joseph R. Rodgers decided to apply the "delayed discovery" rule, which says that the statute of limitations should not begin to run until the date the victim discovers the harm. The "Doe" sisters are now free to have their day in court.

Behind closed doors
May 3
You know those grand and unmarked brick buildings that you always see the guys in Town Cars going into? What they are is private men's clubs, and Rhode Island is a haven for them. Michael Huttner went behind the closed doors to see why they are so protective of what goes on back there.

Maybe they want to avoid the controversy exclusive clubs for rich white men have tended to incite over the past decade. These bastions of noblesse oblige, with their leather and mahogany interiors, full bar and billiards, have traditionally been havens for the discreet business deal, the tactful firing, the celebratory promotion. The clubs were (and are) a place for gentleman to carry on what the Hope Club's centennial history calls "the graciousness of the great gentlemen's clubs of the past."

Dirty water
May 31
Starting in May, a string of seven NewPaper covers were dedicated to the misdoings of soon to be ex-Governor DiPrete, starting with a Johnette Rodriguez report on DiPrete's initiative to sell some 330 acres of prized state land, the Ladd Center in Exeter, for mere budget-balancing purposes.

[Concerns include] possible contamination of the Queen's River Aquifer. The US Environmental Protection Agency designated the aquifer as the sole drinking water source for that area. The US Geological Survey estimated that it could produce at least four million gallons per day of GAA drinking water, the purest classification defined as "suitable for public drinking water use without treatment." And the town of Exeter established the area as a "groundwater overlay district," protected by local ordinances.

White not right
June 14
After a RIProject/AIDS Walk for Life and picnic on the State House lawn, Lisa Prevost reported that Rhode Island's own reigning shock jock, WALE's Steve White, in an attempt to gain publicity for his own campaign for governor, stirred up anti-gay sentiments to nearly incite a riot.

After police escorted White away, many of the Walk people began hugging and crying. Most of them had never had to confront anti-gay sentiment in such an overt and physical manner. Said parade participant Glenn Klein, "It brought up an entire lifetime of oppression, and all the anger and the fear came to the surface." Meanwhile, on WALE, callers suggested "the solution would be to put a bounty on the head of every faggot," that "they're not human," and that "they ought to line [gay people] up and kill them."

Civil disobedience
July 26
Drawing ever closer to November's election, Governor DiPrete kept puzzling even supporters. This time, Johnette Rodriguez reported the shock in his camp when DiPrete vetoed two hugely supported bills.

Words of outrage and feelings of betrayal were rampant among the 20 leaders of civil rights, labor and human services organizations assembled outside of Governor DiPrete's office door on July 18. The leaders had managed to confront DiPrete about why he had unexpectedly vetoed two important pieces of civil legislation. Both bills had won the unanimous support of the General Assembly, and their sponsors had worked with the governor's staff for more than two months to make sure there were no problems with the legislation. DiPrete, however, couldn't cite any specific reason for vetoing either bill.

Complex career
August 2
The Young Adults were a high-concept rock band / performance art unit which combined sharp musicianship with surreal humor. When they reunited to provide the aural and visual hooks for the film Complex World, E.L. Widmer

celebrated the uniqueness of our own merry pranksters.

Those of us who were in Providence in the 1970s can close our eyes and remember fondly: the flair pants; the lime-green tuxedos; the Camaros and El Caminos; the Mafia hits; the Stones arrested in Warwick; Elvis at the Civic Center (6/22/74, 6/26/76, and 5/23/77). Like Paris in the '20s, there was a je ne sais quoi in the air. Between the fall of Nixon and the rise of Reagan, this feeling was somehow exemplified by the music of the Young Adults. But let me make one thing perfectly clear: this was not your run-of-the-mill mid-'70s Providence band. The band members, existing in the periphery of the RISD art scene, were not only gifted musicians, but had a world-view that left its impression on anyone who saw them. They defiantly, exuberantly cultivated bad taste in everything they did: their songs, their clothing, their behavior onstage. It wasn't so much the studied, belligerent bad taste of the Sex Pistols as a joyous celebration of the weirdness of Gerald Ford's America. Borrowing from the example of another Providence native, S.J. Perelman, they savaged the stupidity surrounding them by reveling in it.Like David Byrne, who auditioned for them but was rejected for his shyness, they had a real sense of the theatrical absurd. Like David Johansen, they knew how to rock beneath the facade of their humor. And like David Berkowitz, there was a streak of genuine insanity in there someplace.

Rock 'n' role fantasy
August 2
When the years-in-the-making Complex World was finally released, Scott Duhamel gave it a thumb up.

Dig this: Youngish guy, semi-dissipated, given to a daily uniform of pajama bottoms, bowling shirts and a close-fitting, bad hat, name of Jeff Burgess, son of presidential candidate Robert Burgess. He owns this nightclub, see, a rock 'n' roll nightclub, filled with the usual assortment of stupid drunks, horny guys, wise (and wiseass) janitors, cynical bartenders, fun-lovers and thrill-seekers, and all those who just gotta dance, including band members on stage and off. On the night that we are privy to all the action at the club, improbably called the Heartbreak Hotel, it seems that many dramatic mini-tales are unfolding at the sweat-filled site. Two separate groups are targeting the hot spot for chaos and mayhem -- a roving biker gang and a small terrorist cadre, which includes confused protest singer Morris Brock, also fitted into the dreaded opening spot before that monster band called, improbably enough again, the Young Adults. Add to the mix a documentary team, a mayor's aide, a slap-happy preacher, a visiting clone band and the double dangers of behind-the-back politics and a plastic explosive buried deep within an unidentifiable beer keg, and you've got it all in one cracked nutshell -- Jim Wolpaw's Complex World, a rock 'n' roll comedy.

Stevie Ray Vaughan: 1954-1990
August 30
The peerless guitarist was beloved by his compatriots in the Ocean State. Michael Caito got in touch with the blues community to share the sense of loss.

It was a lot more than just another guitar hero that went down in that chopper Monday. For many local bluesmen who knew Stevie Ray Vaughan, the loss will be felt for years to come. His influence was strongest at a time when the blues needed a shot in the arm.

Roomful guitarist Tommy K admitted to being numb all day Monday. "It's over. I'll never see him, I'll never fuckin' hear him. The worst thing is there's so few people you know as friends and that you can do that with anyway -- not see someone for a year and then walk in . . . the room is electric, you see their smile, and you give them a big hug, and talk about the million people you both know. Stevie was undeniable."

He got on a helicopter and it all ended, just as it was about to begin all over again. A cold shot?The coldest.

Off the wall
November 21
As the date rape controversy continued to snowball, Emily Bell reported that women at Brown University perked national ears with what became known infamously as "the Rape List."

Since September, some women have individually and gradually generated a bathroom-wall list of men who they say are rape and sexual assault offenders on campus. The list, which has received national attention in the New York Times and Newsweek, is one of the more radical reactions to a general dissatisfaction with the campus disciplinary system. The purpose was originally twofold: to warn other women about potentially violent men and to make a bold statement that men will not be protected by the campus disciplinary system as some woman believe they have historically been.

Homeless for the holidays
December 27
As Rhode Islanders slept off their Christmas feast, Michael Iacobbo played the Grinch, soberly tracking how the Biggest Little's blooming population of runaways spent the holidays.

Taking the cue, Sharon approaches the car and looks through the window. The two negotiate. After a few seconds, Sharon backs away from the car and shouts, "Don't forget." Confidently, she says, "He'll be back later tonight." Her taut expression and facial creases make her appear much older than her 16 years. "That's the deal. He comes back, picks me up and takes me to the room (in a suburban motel) -- 50 bucks, or more."

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