The Great Schlep is here! Young Jews from across our great, somewhat confused nation will trek down to Ft. Lauderdale and harangue their grandparents and their friends into voting for Obama. Time to cash in all those years of cheek pinching. The LA Times explains:

The Jewish Council for Education and Research — a new pro-Obama political action committee — is organizing “The Great Schlep,” in which hundreds of Jews will make the Southern exodus on Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 10-13. They will travel to the Fort Lauderdale area, where they will visit their grandparents, organize political salons in their condos and eat incredibly bad food. The grandkids also will meet up at a bar one night, which — if the psychological impact of spending a few days with frail, elderly, widowed relatives is taken fully into account — may do more to repopulate the world’s Jews than the creation of Israel.

In case you’re interested, but aren’t exactly sure how to pitch Obama to your elderly, hard-of-hearing, maybe-a-little-racist snowbird relations down in the Sunshine State, I’ve cooked up a nice mock pitch, to be delivered to “Aunt Ethel.”

Here’s the thing Aunt Ethel: I came all the way down to Palm Beach because, well, this election is important. Really important. Now look, remember how upset you were when you accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000? We don’t want that to happen again. And this John McCain character, he’s got less menschkeit than Shabbatai Zevi. He’s a real shlemiel. And this Palin. Don’t get me started. She’s just no good for the Jews. You know she bans books? You know who else banned books? Hitler, that’s who.

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A doctor at Miriam Hospital operated on the wrong knee of a patient undergoing elective surgery yesterday.  According to today’s ProJo,

The surgical team had apparently followed the key safety protocols, including marking the correct knee and pausing to verify the site before operating…

Here’s my thought.  Why mark the correct knee? Wouldn’t it make more sense to mark the wrong knee with a big black “NO!”?

Get over to 2nd Time Around Sports (athletic equipment resale) where members of The Providence Roller Derby will be selling their luscious baked goods (how versatile are these gals?).  They are teamed up today with the Rhode Island Blood Center who just need you to roll up your sleeve and make a fist, they’ll take care of the rest. You can usually get a nilla wafer out of these people too.

saturday/11:30am to 2:30pm/328 Atwood Avenue/Cranston

This from the Blackstone Parks Conservancy:

A groundbreaking ceremony will take place on September 5^th at 10:00 AM for the restoration of the historic Trolley Shelter on Blackstone Boulevard. The shelter, originally designed by architectural firm Stone, Carpenter and Willson in 1904, was built by Swan Point Cemetery to provide a waiting spot for those using the trolley to visit the cemetery. The shelter was recently listed on the Providence Preservation Society’s list of the city’s 10 Most Endangered Properties.

The Blackstone Parks Conservancy is spearheading the Trolley Shelter Restoration Campaign. The restoration will cost $30,000, which will include a new cedar roof, decorative latticework trim and pointing to stabilize the boulder walls.

Who doesn’t love this thing? Go to their website to donate, or show up for the ceremony and see Mayor Cicilline, Councilman Wood and all the other usual suspects. More in the ProJo.

10am/Friday/Blackstone Blvd. at Elmgrove Ave. (entrance of Swan Point)

How did you spend your summer?

A couple lucky Brown students made a cool ten bucks an hour working with the University and Wal-Mart to install CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) lightbulbs for FREE all around the city for middle and low income households.

It’s called project 20/20, and you might be able to still get in on the action. Tipster J writes:

i got it done and it was RAD. also the number is 401 863 7976 or email them at proj2020@gmail.com

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You got it — they need it. Get over to the Bloodmobile at Wayland Square right now. The bloodletters have informed me that they will be there until 7PM (which is to say that they want to go home at 7PM, so don’t be a doosh and walk in at five-of). There are no incentives per se being offered this afternoon —but you get to be that smug bastard who can say “I gave blood today.”

where: Elmgrove Avenue at Angell Street

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

    - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had been meaning to spotlight the swell plantings dotting the downtown area but the ProJo beat me to it yesterday. The simple and sophisticated designs are by Gates, Leighton & Associates with the all-important maintenance being performed by the Downtown Improvement District. Big ups for getting the hanging baskets right; they are enormous which means that not only is the scale right for their surroundings, but the plants have a good root-run and can flourish. And the choice of plant material was kept simple, and repeated from basket to basket which is much more pleasing to the eye. As to the petunias that adorn the ‘lawyer crossing’, they are just mental.

What the hell was I so busy doing last October that I didn’t get out to see — and hear — this amazing movie in a theater? Oh yeah, the Red Sox were in the World Series. No excuse! The reviews had certainly been great; The New York Times loved it, Ebert swooned. But perhaps I was not the only Beatles fanatic fearful that the music would get Idol-ized and belted out in that dreadful Broadway howl. And maybe I was conflating it with the Vegas-y cheese that is Cirque du Soleil:Love. Maybe I was just out of weed. But I am here to tell you, these arrangements and performances are so original and beautiful, you will hear this music in a whole new way*. The movie holds up in every other respect as well. The story is genuinely poignant, never cloying. As to the visuals, they are so astounding, getting high would be redundant. Love is all you need.

*’I Want to Hold Your Hand’ made me cry.

Waste management was already hard enough, but computers and cell phones are presenting a special set of problems and must be handled separately. Rhode Island Resource Recovery is having a computer and e-waste drop-off day this coming Saturday (the next one is August 23rd). This is for Rhode Island residents only. (Removing all the porn sensitive information from your hard drive is your problem; there seem to be plenty of free wipe downloads available.) If you have a small business they can help you out as well, but there is a nominal fee. Big props for the website which has all the details and is easy to use. And kudos to RIRR for including a phone number in the contact information. A visit to the central landfill is a real eye-opener. Bring the kids.

8AM to 12 Noon/Saturday/Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp./65 Shun Pike/Johnston

In keeping with the fish theme, here is the latest in pedicures.  I think it looks kind of cool. Happy feet!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEFsbt1RKe0]

Only minutes away from kick-off! About 55 movie crews are about to spread out and film a short movie in only 48 hours. Rhode Island organizer, Mike Ryan, asks all citizens to be alert and patient…

On Friday, July 18th, at 6:30pm you can expect to find a lot of Red Bull-chugging, quietly anxious filmmakers huddling about their cell phones, waiting to receive assignments that will consume their every waking moment for the next 48 hours.

At 7pm, you can expect to see them pouring out of the Garden Hilton at Providence Airport/Warwick, each with a prop, line of dialog and character name they’ll need to integrate into their work. Each will also be clutching a slip of paper, drawn from a hat, with the genre their team needs to stick to.

By Sunday at 7, they need to turn in their mini-movie masterpieces – each at least 4 minutes long and none more than 7 minutes.

Public screenings will be held at the Columbus Theater on July 23 and 24. Good luck everybody.
48-Hour Film Project

The previously mentioned Blackstone Boulevard bicycle lanes will be officially opened today with a ribbon cutting (oh please have those giant scissors) and a press conference with politicians trying to take credit and out-green each other. But this is a good thing so I shouldn’t be snarky. Big props to City Councilman Cliff Wood for making this happen. I’m sure he had opposition. He has been known to tool around town on the coolest electric bike which I totally covet. You don’t even have to register (or pedal) those things.

So lots and lots of bicyclists and anyone else should head over to Lippitt Park, the park at the north end of Blackstone Boulevard with the big fountain monument, at 1:00PM today for the ribbon cutting and an inaugural bike ride. Thanks to the Mayor and Mr. Wood and everyone else involved. It’s all well and good to take rides in the country, but it’s time for city dwellers and commuters to get on board, and this makes it possible. Show the pols that you support these initiatives. More of the city bike plan will take shape this summer.

(Go here to sponsor a Rhode Island mile of the East Coast Greenway. More info on bike paths at Greenways Alliance of Rhode Island)

The Obama team stunned us all with their decision to move his nomination acceptance speech from the 19,000–seat Pepsi Center to the 76,000–seat Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos. Today, the Dems’ Convention Committee announced another exciting twist, in the form of three special performances: Kanye West, Wyclef Jean, and N.E.R.D.

Rolling Stone reports:

This year’s Democratic National Convention Committee revealed that a trio of hip-hop artists — Kanye West, Wyclef Jean and N.E.R.D. — will perform when the party gets together in Denver. A native of Barack Obama’s Chicago, West was likely included to keep all those politicians’ egos in check. Let’s just hope Obama’s speech doesn’t run long, otherwise Democrats might be in for a long night. Wyclef is becoming as well known for his humanitarian work with Haiti as his music, so his appearance at the convention makes sense. The most left-field pick is N.E.R.D., though the Democrats obviously view the band’s single “Everybody Nose” — with its chorus of “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom” — as a shocking indictment of the current administration’s futile War on Drugs.

Other celebrities slated for attendance include Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, but let’s pray that Scarlett isn’t performing.

San Francisco is trying to name their sewage treatment plant after President Bush.

“We think that it’s important to remember our leaders in the right historical context,” said McConnell, a member of the group that was formed after friends came up with the renaming idea.

“In President Bush’s case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substantial mess for the next 10 or 20 years,” he said. “The sewage treatment facility’s job is to clean up a mess, so we think it’s a fitting tribute.”

Interesting. Any takers on renaming the the Johnston landfill “The Dick Cheney Stinking Heap of Garbage and Corruption”? What, too much?

Okay everybody, so there is a lot going on tonight that discerning listeners will want to take part in.

Of course there is the official SS’08 fare at Black Rep. Soul/R&B/House/Funk singer and songwriter Eric Roberson headlines a night of the Funky (local artists Grow), the sparse and political (multifaceted NYC poet Oveous Maximus) and the Boom Bap (DJ Therion on the ones and twos). Chachi hosts in his weekly stomping ground with a beefed up lineup ($15)

Members of AUREA Ensemble headline tonight at Firehouse 13. AUREA’s concerts combine poetry, drama, epistles, classical and folk music, puppetry, and movement into performances that sweep from intimate chamber settings to major theatrical venues. ($10 at 8pm)

The Blackstone is featuring a night of sweet underground and independent Rock with Buffalo NY’s  Cacahouette local fave Roz Raskin and The Rice Cakes and Troop of Echoes . (FREE)

 At Tazza The Basement Bros will be playing live Jazzy, organic House and Tevallus will be playing something shimmery and sitar-based. ($3)

Local 121 is featuring Soul Psychedelicide in the speakeasy. Its the live project of genius Monday resident, and Prince aficionado, Abstract Soul. (FREE)