Culture
This year’s Portsmouth Institute conference changed things up a bit by eliminating the one or two presentations from Thursday and lining up three for Sunday. It definitely made sense to better utilize the second weekend day, although the talks came in such rapid succession that a second viewing with time to ruminate is in order.…
So GoLocalProv is trying to find the “Best Community” in Rhode Island, huh? I suppose it is a clever way to drive website traffic (and media discussion) throughout the week by releasing your findings in pieces. Especially when you put each ranking as it’s own discrete web page, thereby amplifying web clicks, page views, etc.…
The Saturday sessions of the Portsmouth Institute‘s conference, this year, began with Clare Asquith, speaking on “As You Like It and the Elizabethan Catholic Dilemma”: Mrs. Asquith’s acute thesis is that Shakespeare wrote the play with a particular Catholic family in mind — indeed, perhaps under that family’s patronage. Her broader suggestion is that the…
I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign. I keep hearing that soundbite on WPRO this morning. It sounded strange to me that President Obama chose to frame his disapproval of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s actions in just that way. It doesn’t seem, well, Presidential to project oneself into that sort of…
As always, the Portsmouth Institute‘s annual conference was an edifying and relaxing taste of high intellectual pursuit, and one can only wish such events were more regularly available… and more broadly pursued by the general public. Rt. Rev. Dom Aidan Bellenger, the Abbot of Downside, set the scene with the opening lecture on Friday afternoon.…
This year’s Portsmouth Institute conference takes up the topic of “The Catholic Shakespeare,” and fittingly, this evening’s musical interlude features music of a Shakespearean theme. Specifically, the orchestra will be playing Sir William Walton’s Henry V Suite and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. The performance begins at 6:15, so you’ve still got time to…
Arlene Violet is one of those iconic Rhode Island figures to whom we’re compelled to pay some level of attention, but I’d intended largely to ignore her musical about the mob. I’m sure there’s some novelty to it, and it’s probably well done, but with the Godfather movies, Goodfellas, Casino, The Sopranos, and the long…
One day, writing for multiple newspapers across the country will require evidence of such thinking as is appropriate of mature adults. That fantasy came to mind upon reading this by L.A. Times writer Neal Gabler: … over the last 30 years or so, something has happened to reshape the country’s moral geography. Everyone knows about…
The ProJo reports that that reformed education reformer Dianne Ravitch had apologized to RI Ed. Commish Deborah Gist for her actions following their recent meeting (which included a demand that Gist apologize to her). Ravitch issued the mea culpa on her blog after a visit to the Franciscan-founded Sienna College over the weekend. Apparently, the…
I’ll believe it when I see it. So starts the latest post by Seth Godin. It’s apropos given the current controversy surrounding the bin Laden death photos. We have to accept that once we start down the slippery slope of always (or never) believing, we end up in Alice-in-Wonderland territory. Do you have firsthand knowledge…