1994

Inadequate aid
January 14
When Rhode Island Project/AIDS lost a good portion of its state funding, many activists spoke out against the state and its cuts. Jody Ericson, however, discovered that the "Project's indignant reaction [to the cuts] didn't tell the whole story."

The state didn't take funds away from the nonprofit organization because of budget cutbacks or a redistribution to other causes. Rather, a panel appointed by the state Department of Health . . . concluded that the Project was not serving enough people with AIDS adequately. In truth, the biggest battle Rhode Island Project/AIDS faces is not one of financial support, but of accountability.

Almost grown
April 8
Storyteller Bill Harley made his name with his kids' tales, but Bill Rodriguez revealed that Harley's mature work was a result of growing up in public.

The approachability [Bill Harley] conveys in his delivery is a function of his outgoing personality, which he couldn't keep out of his stories if he wanted to. I challenge anyone to describe Harley talking, never mind performing, and not use the adjective "boyish." He has a high-register voice that can leap to a whine without an intervening state, which is so useful for kids' stories. He has a mobile face as changeable as Silly Putty, the better to register snapshots of his characters' emotional states.

Like a magician distracting with patter, Harley's apparent artlessness can make the craft, and sometimes artistry, of his storytelling hard to detect. Stories are abstractions from sprawling experiences, and they rarely can be lifted whole from life. Life's little happenings have this confusing habit of being open-ended.

"It's very rare in reality that an ending presents itself cleanly," Harley said. "The real trick is looking for the narrative line in a story. It's become very clear to me as a storyteller that what people do in order to make sense of their lives is make stories out of them. So we pick and choose what's important and what's not, just as a novelist picks and chooses, doesn't tell everything. And you succeed more or less in life, you feel that you have a purpose in life, to the extent that you can make a story out of what you do."

Novelty act?
April 15
Not that we claim to be even one small bit psychic, but Lisa Prevost's headline on Tax Day read, "Downcity: Is downtown Providence on the verge of a renaissance?" Prevost previewed the possible pitfalls.

But if downtown Providence is to be remade into "something big" -- defined by the mayor as a European-flavored cultural milieu complete with an antique row, book stalls and cafes tucked into alleyways -- there must be much more to come. The new Convention Center looms menacingly over the city's decayed core, a $350 million gamble that won't be able to draw conventioneers on sheer novelty alone for more than another year.

GoodFella
May 6
Bill Rodriguez hooked up with director Michael Corrente a few days before the release of Federal Hill made the director's dreams come true.

Q: What have your friends from the old neighborhood who have seen the film had to say?

A: I told them I was coming back to make a movie and I think a lot of people were expecting me to show up with a video camera and a few of my buddies. But when the trucks started rolling in and the Panavision camera package and the 10-Ks started coming out, they realized that it was a little but more than they had expected. Then for them to see it, and to see their lives portrayed in a real movie, the kind of movie that the Showcase Cinema plays, it really validated the film for them.

We had a screening for the cast and crew at the Avon. A lot of these guys really thought that this was interactive film, you know, and they were screaming up at the screen -- "Joey, there's your house!" and "Eddie, that's your fuckin' car!"

Police force
May 27
Police brutality has been a burning issue in the consciousness of many Providence citizens for quite some time. Steven Stycos looked at a Justice Department study for hard numbers on complaints against local police departments.

It is difficult to ignore some of the "truly startling" numbers. For example, Providence, East Providence and Pawtucket cops were found to be at least 10 times more likely than Boston cops to have been the subject of civil rights complaints. Of the departments included on the study's list of 187 leading complaint recipients, the authors [of a book on the study] note: "Rhode Island . . . leads the chart with a rate four to 25 times higher than any other."

Deadly desires
June 10
In May, the murder of Roger Oliver shook up the Oakland Beach neighborhood of Warwick. Oliver had grown up thinking he was going to be a priest, carrying around a Bible with him everywhere he went, but, as Lisa Prevost explains, as he grew up Roger's interests changed.

By the time of his death, Oliver, 23, was not what the Catholic Church would consider priest material. The proud proprietor of a flourishing escort service, Oliver had succumbed to his "sinful" desires. The desire to have lots of money and fine possessions. And the desire to have frequent sex with other men.

How we die
July 18
During a Kevorkian-inspired debate on the ethics of death in society, Jody Ericson talked to area doctors about how they deal with a subject most of us try to repress. Fred Crisafulli, a general internist in Providence, argued that we need to reassess our perspective on dying.

"I think that our society is still looking for lost youth. We're young, historically, but we've developed a very powerful technology that allows us to live a long time, sometimes longer than appropriate. I think, somewhere, we harbor the hope that we'll be able to keep people alive forever, and it's not a good thing. Death should be seen as a natural part of life."

Ladies' man
September 2
In '94 the Phoenix endorsed Myrth York for the Democratic nomination for governor instead of incumbent Bruce Sundlun, citing 94 reasons not to re-elect the Governor. These were accompanied by a caricature of Sundlun with a pig's snout for a nose.

No 1. He promised to serve only one term in 1990. No. 2. He promised to serve only one more term in 1992. No. 3. It's 1994. He's running again . . . 14. He used the analogy of a housewife spending twice as much as her husband gives her to explain the state budget deficit "for the ladies in the audience." 15. He said of Elizabeth Leonard, his Republican opponent in 1992: "I've been chasing blondes all my life but it's going to get turned around. There's going to be a blonde chasing me." 16. He said of Sara Quinn, Democratic candidate for attorney general: she is a "small woman with a good figure."

Ab fab
September 30
Before the swing thing landed in every club in PVD, Beth Wolfensberger found Providence's own Combustible Edison were already dealing in, well, an alternative to alternative music. Their goal: to find, within each and every one of us, an inner Vegas.

Says [band leader Michael] Cudahy, "We realized that the kingdom of Vegas lies within." What Cudahy means is apparent to anyone who's seen Combustible Edison. The band's motto is "Be Fabulous." Its cocktail-lounge-style music is "a soundtrack to the listener's luxurious existence." The band members dress fabulously: spats, smoking jackets, long black gloves, elegant coiffures. The band's "chanteuse" and "diva," sounds a bit like Edith Piaf.

The safe way
October 21
Republican Senator John Chafee may have been one of the first voices calling for Clinton impeachment hearings, but he has, in the past, been known more for his "safe" policy-making and compromise-tactics than partisan politics. Lisa Prevost explained how, in 1994's climate of incumbent bashing, Chafee rode this "safe" reputation to an easy victory over then-state Representative Linda Kushner.

Former Governor Chafee has become a revered figure in Rhode Island. He has accumulated a "reservoir of good will," says one Democratic political operative. Perhaps most important to his strength in this race, was his high-profile role in the national health-care debate . . . where Chafee led the bipartisan group of moderates who attempted to stake a middle ground.

Shimmy-shimmy-shake
November 4
They went international in '98, but Michael Caito was in on the ground floor with the devilish retro-rockers, the Royal Crowns.

This Providence-based quartet is the area's hottest band right now, and they show no signs of a letdown . . . Rockabilly, psychobilly, whatever you wanna call it, theirs is a hunka-hunka burnin' fun, a sonic and visual treat (check the gold lamé shirts) that defies you to not wriggle something. Purists -- jealous purists -- may mouth the same ol' tripe about "shtick" over substance. Fact is, they've inked a couple dozen killer originals utilizing classic themes -- big fast cars, dangers of liquor, femme fatales -- and injected them with a freshness, a scalawag's winking charm, that transcends transparency.

Buddy's new buddy
December 16
Radio motormouth Don Imus weighed in with his opinion on our fair mayor, comparing Buddy to a Guys and Dolls character in an interview with reporter Al Giordano.

[Buddy] has kind of a Damon Runyan way about him. I just thought he was a fat blowhard the first time I had him on. But he had staying power . . . As soon as we had him on, I was inundated with letters and articles from people throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island telling us about some of the things that he had done. He had sort of an unsavory past. But we had him on live. He was terrific. I would have him on again.

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