That would be us! Third year in a row! Rhode Island Monthly held its annual ‘Best of 2010′ gala at the Providence Performing Arts Center tonight, and the Providence Daily Dose was named ‘Best Local Blog’! Again! (Our judicious use of exclamation points has not gone unnoticed.) Fox Television carried the special (our award at the 4:34 mark). Big thanks to Rhode Island Monthly!!!!!

The theme this year is ‘Back to Nature’. Head over to Monohasset Mill and the Steel Yard for music and interactive art. See the Flower Tower, the Churning of the Ocean, Nesty Tacos, the Blue Passage! And the Honey Bunny Rangers will be glad to tell you where to go. Entertainment includes,

DJ Rupture, Triangle Forest, the lovely Blevin Blectum (on the jellyfish corridor, 5pm to 8pm), Viennagram, Micah Jackson, Sensual Dan, Raw Lip, Caroline Hecht, Extraordinary Rendition Marching Band, The Atlantic Thrills, Through the Keyhole Burlesque, The Get Lively Experiment, and Thirsty Sounds

$15 at door, 1pm to 1am, Saturday, Wooly Fair, 64 Eagle Street

Last weekend a Kings of Leon show shut down after just three songs when a pigeon pooped into the bass player’s mouth (HuffPo). And now here’s this T-shirt. What is going on? Do the birds want us all to shut up? Maybe just certain bands? At any rate, keep an eye on the sky this weekend at the Newport Folk Festival until we figure this out. Friday night starts at the International Tennis Hall of Fame — an evening of banjo and bluegrass with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. Then the festival moves to the three stages at Fort Adams State Park. On Saturday the Low Anthem play the Fort Stage from 12:35pm to 1:20pm, while the What Cheer? Brigade will play surprise sets throughout the day. Also on Saturday, Blitzen Trapper, and Andrew Bird. Then on Sunday good ol’ Levon Helm, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and Ben Sollee who my pal Genevieve loves to pieces. Go here for full schedule. The weather looks perfect!

. . . it just has to be Matt Gennuso of Chez Pascal! Check out today’s food segment with Al Roker on the Today Show. They show the pork truck and everything. He’s really good at this, very natural and amusing. They made a yummy bacon and pork meatlloaf sandwich, with cole slaw on toasted bun. Picture after the jump.

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Keep your eyes peeled — former President Bill Clinton will be in town today stumping for gubernatorial hopeful Frank Caprio. He looks something like this. According to the ProJo,

The event is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., though doors will open at noon, the Caprio campaign said. Providence police were tight-lipped about security precautions, saying only that there will be no road closings. They referred other questions to the Secret Service.

Free, Thursday, doors noon, event 2:30pm, open to the public, Rhode Island Convention Center, 1 Sabin Street

Back in 2001, I e-mailed Avengers frontwoman Penelope Houston to ask her a question for this music project I was working on at the time, and she didn’t respond for months and then when I followed up she apologized and told me that her computer had been struck by lightning.  Maybe she just had bad luck, perhaps, but I always thought she was actually making fun of me.  (Because probably she was?)

Anyway.  I mention this because the Avengers are coming!  To Providence!  Tonight!  Holy crap!

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Okay, Pawtucket is not technically part of Providence and is therefore a bit beyond the original scope of this blog. However, the residents of Providence certainly have a stake in the economic and political health of our border towns lest they descend into anarchy and the revolting rabble spills over onto our side, pillaging and whatnot. And so it gives me great pleasure to announce that my friend John Sawyer is running for a councilor-at-large seat on the Pawtucket City Council. According to the Valley Breeze,

Sawyer, who considers himself a fiscal conservative, heeded a call to step up and get involved in his community. As a result of attending City Council meetings regularly over the past two years, Sawyer said he found that the real work of the council is done in council committees. He said he is usually the lone civilian attendee besides the councilmen themselves at the committee meetings.

If he is this active as a citizen, just think what he will be like as an elected official! All I know is he is smart and honest, and he already knows his way around this building here. (Wasn’t the idea of a few at-large council seats suggested for Providence a while ago? We should bring that up again.) For more info go to John Sawyer for Pawtucket City Council.

Tonight at the Wild Colonial,

Drinking Liberally teams up with Marriage Equality RI (MERI) for a great night of connecting, getting involved, and talking politics over a beer.

8pm to 10pm, Wednesday, Drinking Liberally, Wild Colonial Tavern, 250 South Water Street

THE MANTON AVENUE PROJECT proudly presents seven stupendous plays from our Dialogue Program, acted and directed by fabulous MAP Kid/Adult duos!!!

Four performances only!

Thursday July 29th thru Saturday July 31st at 7pm

Sunday August 1st at 3pm

Tickets are free, but reservations are encouraged. Call 401.331.7007. More info at the Manton Avenue Project.

According to today’s ProJo, the Economic Development Corporation heard the word “jobs” and voted 8-to1 to guarantee a $75-million loan to Curt Schilling’s gaming company ‘38 Studios’, a company that has yet to actually bring anything to market. (Only one person had reservations?)* Like many New England fans I can vividly remember Schilling beating the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS with a sock full of blood. It sure felt great. However, I also remember that later that same year he was campaigning for the reelection of George W. Bush which pretty much cancelled out anything good he had ever done, on or off the mound. Okay, so Rhode Island is handing $75-million over to a guy who looked at the 2004 Bush administration and thought — Great Job!

Also with misgivings is Ed Fitzpatrick writing for the ProJo. He makes a great point about Schilling’s political hypocrisy regarding his previous stand on the need for small government. Further,

Red Sox senior adviser Jeremy A. Kapstein, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said, “Small businesses in this state are having a very difficult time getting financing. If you took that $75 million and spread it throughout our state, it could help thousands of small businesses and the jobs therein.”

Amen to that.

*So who was the dissenting vote? Karl Wadensten of VIBCO, a manufacturer of industrial vibrators. . . must. . . not. . . make. . . joke. . . . . . too. . . obvious . . . . . can’t hold out. . . much longer. . .  . . aaargghh. . .

This would totally be the worth the trip to Newport, and I do not say that often (Flo’s Clamshack). This is a good ‘get’ for the Newport Summer Comedy Series — Louis C. K. may be the best stand-up guy out there. His recent work includes his nuanced performance as Dave, the unsophisticated, but nobody’s fool, policeman on Parks and Recreation. As Leslie Knope’s suitor he is vulnerable yet strangely confident, and just really appealing. Louie C.K. now has his own comedy show on the FX Network. Louie is structured much like the old Seinfeld (not that there’s anything wrong with that) with Louie’s daily struggles book-ended by segments of his stand-up (the bit about the homeless guy is insanely funny). What sets the show apart are the new twists on old standards — see the blind date episode — and his ability to find the perfect word every time.

Louie airs Tuesdays, tonight, 11pm on the FX Network.

Louie C.K. Live, $35, 7:30pm, Sunday, August 1st, Newport Yachting Center, 16+

Head down to the 201 for a special benefit for Nicole Reinert, featuring Lightning Bolt, the What Cheer?Brigade, Red Dons, and Peter Glantz and the Imaginary Company.

Great line-up and if you’ve never seen LB this is a nice intimate venue for your first time. . . should get pretty ripe. This is a Bolt’s-eye view of the crowd taken somewhere.

9pm, Monday, 201 Westminster Street, $8 donation requested, 21+ only

Corrugated Press, based in Providence and Santa Fe, and Soggy Summer, based in Chicago, have released Brass Sopaipilla, the first issue of their literary publication, adj noun magazine. Brass Sopaipilla is 45 imperfectly hand-bound pages of (mostly) fiction, poetry, and visual art by Blake Butler, Christopher Woods, Coupons Coupons, Daisy Atterbury, David Ohle, Feliz Molina, John Biscello, J.C. Paul, Marie Atterbury, Peter Markus, Ropert Lopez, Rob Walsh, Roxanne Carter, Suzanne Vilmain, Thirii Myint, Tim Ramick, Tricia Atlas, and Will Barnet. It was printed in an edition of 200, and its cover was letterpressed in a variety colors. Almost every Brass Sopaipilla has been wrapped in a unique belt, so no two are alike.

From the title page: “A sopaipilla [so-puh-pee-uh] is related to a cloud: consumption involves a puncturing with teeth through the shell, directly followed by, if not entirely coupled with, rapid deflation of the pillow-like object, ending in an encounter with the famed inner succulence. The consistency of that interior is reminiscent of the most viscous of ambrosias: smooth, homogeneous, and especially devoid of grainy particulates like ‘reflections of reality.’ The brass sopaipilla, a relative of the cloud through association with the sopaipilla, surely must inherit some of those traits. However, we expect differences to arise at least in the rigidity of the shell and diversity of the interior.”

Brass Sopaipilla is currently available in the following bookstores: Ada Books, Symposium Books, Cellar Stories, and The Brown Bookstore (all in Providence, RI) for 6$. More information, including how to purchase Brass Sopaipilla online, can be found at corrugatedpress.com/adjnoun.html. In addition, nouncommaadj (at) gmail (dot) com is already accepting submissions for issue number two, tentatively titled Digital Hamper.

Parking at state beaches is free. Also, free fishing for salt-water anglers. Many events are planned at several locations. Find kite flying demos at Brenton Point or a sunset bonfire at Scarborough. Go to website for details. Jump on the free RIPTA Beach Bus Express. (ProJo)

Departs various locations around the State taking beach–goers to Roger Wheeler State Beach, Salty Brine State Beach and Scarborough State Beach and Scarborough State Beach for a day of fun in the sun!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

The theme for installment 16 of Pecha Kucha is ‘Back to Nature’ and where better to do that than the Steel Yard.

Pecha Kucha is a monthly format for sharing ideas, in which presenters are allotted 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. Put simply: 6 minutes and 40 seconds of adult-style show & tell. It began in Tokyo in 2003, has since spread to over 300 cities worldwide, and landed in Providence last March.  In homage to Wooly Fair 2010, which is happening the weekend of this month’s Pecha Kucha night and also at the Steel Yard, the theme is — Back to Nature.

Doors, Thursday, July 29, 7:20pm, presentations 8:20pm, the Steel Yard, 27 Sims Avenue

Get your annual fill of animals, music, bingo, doughboys and pie at the Foster Fair, a.k.a. Foster Old Home Days.  Events include a bunny race, rooster crowing contest, lots of meals with baked beans, an old-fashioned tractor pull, “Foster Idol,” and the most historic Rhode Island tradition of all: daily martial arts demonstrations.

Performances include Atwater-Donnelly Saturday afternoon; Superchief Trio Saturday evening; Still Pickin’ on Sunday afternoon; and Ray Cooke Sunday evening (full fair schedule here). Wear your dancin’ shoes (but not the good ones, as there may be some manure about).

$4 (kids under 12 free), Saturday until 10pm & Sunday from 8am to 7pm, fairgrounds off intersection of Rt. 94 and Howard Hill Rd. in Foster.

Friday — @Lupo’s, Fabolous and Friends, Red Cafe @AS220, DirtyDurdie, SOL, TemBlessed and Blessed Energy @Waterplace Park, the Wandas @the Penalty Box, Sharks Come Cruisin’, the State Lottery @Club Hell, the Usual Suspects, For What It’s Worth

Saturday — @Firehouse13, Tester, Phi and Halos and Heretic, Foundry @AS220, Minky Starshine, Suuns, Parlovr, Ming Toro @the 201, Brown Bird, Honey Clouds, Broadcaster @Club Hell, Lions Lions, the Tired and True

Sunday — @the 201, Jesuscentric, Weak Teeth, the Blue Letter, To The Depths @AS220, Rampant Decay, Suzi Trash, Immaculate Grotesque, Brain Shivers @Club Hell, Unter Null, Cyanotic, Sonic Foundry, TRS151 @the Dark Lady, Detroit Rebellion, Mal Blum, Man and the Dog

(Photo of Parlovr by Susan Moss)