Good news for those in the Del’s diaspora, you are not imagining things — that’s a Del’s truck you see on the horizon.  New York magazine found it newsworthy.

Gothamist made a major and crucial frozen-lemonade discovery just in time for summer: Apparently, Rhode Island’s famous Del’s Lemonade is now in New York. The soft, slushy, and drinkable stuff will be available at this weekend’s Ninth Avenue Food Festival and at Brooklyn Bridge Park, the site reports, where the vendor will dispense cups of the zest-filled and fructose-spiked happiness from the back of a refurbished 1949 Chevrolet 3/4-ton truck.

And someone should inform Mayor Bloomberg that this isn’t just sugary syrup poured over ice — it’s real fresh-squeezed lemons. Okay okay, there is some sugar added (see Food Channel segment at website) but it isn’t icky and overly sweet, so it shouldn’t matter how big the cup is. It’s a cup of happiness dammit.

Today marks the release of singer-songwriter Eric Barao’s eponymous new power pop album and it’s really quite remarkable. This is a relief for me personally because he’s a friend and I am a terrible liar . . . in that I’m not that good at it. I am delighted to report that he has created ten excellent tracks. That’s ten out of ten . . . a perfect ten.

If the name sounds familiar, Barao fronted local band The Cautions a few years back, providing the pop soundtrack for many evenings at the Green Room, and some of those bandmates have contributed to this new recording.

To begin, it just sounds so great; the production values of this project are exceptional. Mixed and produced by noted musician Bleu (they’ve been friends since Berklee) and mastered by Grammy-winning music engineer Ducky Carlisle at Ice Station Zebra where much of it was recorded, this one is for the high-fidelity freaks. The result of this meticulous care is that the extraordinary arrangements and instrumentation — including wurlitzer, mellotron, ukelele, tuba, bicycle wheel — shine through and sweep you away. There are just no boring parts — lovely Beatle-y bits keep weaving in and out — and now I know why this was taking him so long.

My problem with many modern singer-songwriters is that they are so caught up with their poetry and tormented souls that the actual music writing seems to be a wan afterthought. Not so here, these are ten distinct, hooky melodies. However, Barao clearly has had some torment in his life. If the anti-bullying movement would like an authentic, not-lame, anthem, the poignant “To All You Guys” was apparently written years ago from the inside of a locker.

In addition to playing several instruments, Barao provides the polished lead vocals including a killer falsetto. My fave is still “New Earth.” I would probably have more credibility if I could find some one thing to fault . . . still looking. (Barao explains his influences and the new album in video after the jump. Album available now at iTunes, Amazon MP3, cdbaby, Bandcamp, and Spotify. Live shows, with band where everybody is named Matt, coming up.)

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(4.3) On Wednesday, April 3, James Beard award-winner Chef Jody Adams returns to her alma mater for a cooking demo and book signing at the Brown Faculty Club. The Providence native, and recent contestant on the second season of Top Chef Masters, is the owner of nationally acclaimed Rialto in Harvard Square and co-owner of TRADE.

In 2002 Adams published In the Hands of a Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant which she co-wrote with husband Ken Rivard. In 2004 Gourmet named Rialto one of “world’s best hotel restaurants.”

Free and open to the public/cash bar.

5pm to 6:30pm, Wednesday, April 3, Brown Faculty Club, 1 Magee Street

Officer Tony was at it again today.

I’ll bet the Sisters of Mercy over at Bay View Academy are doing a jig right about now. Normally, we here at the Dose would not be discussing the whole beauty pageant thang (least of all the one owned and operated by the most loathsome man in the universe), however . . .

Rhode Island never ever ever wins these things, or even makes it past the first cut, so congratulations to Olivia Culpo who now rules the beauty universe. Plus she plays the cello, for realz.

Go Bengals.

The Low Anthem are a wonderful folk rock band who tour the globe but call Providence home.  This Saturday they reopen the Columbus Theater on Broadway for the first of what I hope will be many, many shows and communitarian happenings.  (I’m pretty sure the last formal-ish show I saw in there was by Lightning Bolt, perhaps in early 2006.)  It’s wonderful to have the venue back in business. Proceeds from the event go to the ongoing rehabilitation of the theater, and the Providence-based charity Atraves, which fosters economic development, education, and health care in Nicaragua.

David: Why did you guys leave the former pasta sauce factory in Central Falls — where you recorded your last album, Smart Flesh — and take to the Columbus?

Low Anthem: The Pasta Sauce Factory was always going to be short term. I mean, we had to sign a death waiver to get into the place. So when we left there, we started looking for a new studio in town. How it came to be the Columbus is a whirlwind. I wondered one day what was going on in there, as many people probably did, looking at the ominous, unchanging ‘opening soon’ marquee, and my curiosity led me to seek out the theater’s owner, Jon Berberian, who agreed to meet up for a walk-through. That was all it took. Our minds were blown. The Columbus is pure magic.

“Major” — as in major chords and major fun — is the latest album from Fang Island, another band to come out of RISD (they’re in Brooklyn now). The band, who describe their sound as “everyone high-fiving everyone,” are currently touring everywhere but here. The song “Dooney Rock” — an ecstatic riverdance/pogo freak-out (Big Country meets Andrew WK) — must really get the crowd going. Please, I need to see these guys live. Once before I die. (Video of “Sisterly” after the jump.)

“Oblivian Hunter” (Load), the new album from Lightning Bolt, got a mention from Jon Pareles in the Sunday New York Times, the mere fact of which suggests respect and affection even if it is hard to discern actual praise.

Every so often Mr. Chippendale yowls some desperate, unintelligible vocals, or feedback and sirens screech above the instruments. The frenetic repetition draws on, and burns through, copious sources: thrash, military tattoos, progressive rock, drum-and-bass, nyah-nyah taunts, catfights among hyenas, tornadoes hitting junkyards, even raga — which is suggested by the album’s one respite, “The Soft Spoken Spectre,” a twangy, drumless, minute-long modal tune and drone. It’s only a breather to let the rest of the barrage hit harder.

Following his stint with LCD Soundsystem, fellow Fort Thunder guy Gavin Russom got back to work on his own project, the Crystal Ark. They released a single in September, “We Came To,” with your choice of house or dub mix; and earlier in the summer, the band contributed a track to the recent Fleetwood Mac tribute album “Just Tell Me That You Want Me.” Russom runs “Tusk” through the synthesizer making it a much more interesting song than it ever was. (There’s a lot to like on this album: Check out the happy happy funtime “Hold Me” by Haim; also J Mascis interprets Peter Green on “Albatross.”)

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Hard to believe that this is the same party now sneering at the rising sea levels (somebody tell Romney that the U.S. Navy is not laughing). Today the New York Times reported the death at age 92 of renowned conservationist and advocate Russell E. Train.

Mr. Train developed the idea of establishing the Council on Environmental Quality, a policy office within the White House. He also helped persuade the Nixon administration to create the Environmental Protection Agency, empowered to execute and regulate the nation’s new program of safeguarding natural resources and protecting public health.

“I felt strongly that environmental issues needed a sharp, cutting edge in government, one that had high visibility to the public,” Mr. Train recalled in his 2003 memoir, “Politics, Pollution, and Pandas.” And, he wrote, “this view finally prevailed.”

Train was also a founding member of the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund’s United States affiliate. Talk about your endangered species — Republican environmentalists have got to top that list.

(Pictured here is Beavertail in Jamestown, Train’s birthplace! Well, not right on the rocks, but . . . you know.)

The Cable Car Cinema celebrates the birthday of horror writer, Rhode Island’s very own, H.P. Lovecraft (August 20, 1890) with a double feature — two nights only (note different times). The main attraction is The Whisperer in Darkness. Loft Cinema had this to say,

In The Whisperer in Darkness, based on HP Lovecraft’s classic short story, folklore professor Albert Wilmarth investigates legends of strange creatures in the most remote hills of Vermont. His inquiry reveals a terrifying glimpse of the truth that lurks behind the legends. Filmed in the style of classic 1930s horror films such as Frankenstein, Dracula and King Kong, The Whisperer in Darkness returns us to the golden age of cinema for a thrilling adventure of supernatural horror. Filmed on location in New England using the “Mythoscope” process – a mix of modern and vintage film techniques – by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, The Whisperer in Darkness treats audiences to a cinematic thrill not felt since the Hoover administration, delivering one of the most authentic and faithful screen adaptations of a Lovecraft story yet attempted.

But first, the short (47 minutes) silent movie adaptation of “The Call of Cthulhu” — the only story featuring the celebrated monster Cthulhu. Follow a young man’s crusade against the Cult of Cthulhu, a tale that embodies Lovecraft’s nihilistic world view and cosmic perspective.

(Need a gift for the HPL fan in your life? What Cheer Antiques & Vintage just happens to have some interesting Lovecraftiana on sale right now. Pix after the jump.)

10:30pm, Friday, August 17/10pm, Saturday, August 18, Lovecraft Double, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

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One entry in the Rhode Island International Film Festival was made right here in Providence — “Breakfast with Curtis” was written, directed, and shot by Laura Colella, teacher of directing and film production at RISD. She writes of the film’s unique genesis in the Wall Street Journal (“How to Keep Your Indie Feature on Track: Shoot your Neighbors”).

It was June of 2010 . . . I looked around at the characters in the three-family purple house where I lived. On the first floor was an eccentric online bookseller, who started drinking wine at 10 a.m. with his quietly witty and stylish partner. On the second floor was our free-spirited landlady, who was in her seventies. And on the third floor, was my artist-performer boyfriend and me. We all loved to hang out on the porch and in the yard, which had homemade patios from salvaged brick and granite, two fountains, a swing, a “bedswing”, a ping-pong table, and an extensive vegetable garden.

The couple next door lived in a one-family house with two sons . . . They were regular visitors, and we had lots of laughs over beers and a variety of cocktails . . . Great locations, vibrant characters, compelling situations from our lives and imaginations . . . the elements for a movie were brewing right under my nose. I threw out the idea of a homegrown movie project to everyone, and they were immediately seriously committed to making it happen.

The film recently screened to rave reviews at the Los Angeles Film Festival and comes highly recommended by Christina Bevilacqua despite the near total absence of whales.

$10, “Breakfast With Curtis,” (6:30pm shorts), 7pm feature, Friday, August 10, the Vets, running time 82 minutes, Q & A with cast and crew follows

Rhode Island’s Elizabeth Beisel won the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke to add to the silver she won in the 400m individual medley. Very cool.

And a big thanks to Rhode Island Public Radio for blurting out the results this afternoon as I drove down the highway. Not cool.

These jackets are growing on me . . . shades of Star Trek.

Check out the photo gallery at the Providence Journal.

This new movie “Obey the Giant” looks like a pretty polished production. Filming on location around town — and with the blessing of Shepard Fairey himself — RISD senior Julian Marshall has crafted this short narrative film about the early life of Fairey, and the origin story of his OBEY GIANT street art campaign (which explains the insane proliferation of new stickers all over the place).

Based on the true story of Shepard Fairey’s first act of street art,”Obey the Giant”  tells the story of a young skate punk challenging a big-city mayor and the powers-that-be at art school. Frustrated by his inability to gain respect within the confines of art school Shepard sets out to gain notoriety and acclaim by targeting the most powerful man in Providence, former Mayor Buddy Cianci. Risking expulsion and jail time Shepard plasters Andre the Giant’s face over the image of Cianci on a campaign billboard. As word of Shepard’s prank gets out, Shepard learns that art is a weapon and attention is both a blessing and a curse.

To generate buzz for a second run at Kickstarter — the goal has already been met — Marshall put together an impressive trailer for the movie (go here). This happens to be a weird time for reviving memories of former Mayor Cianci’s “misadventures” but the film is really about Shepard Fairey and this is how it happened.

(Photo by Philip Scott Andrews)

(4.21) An invitation from City Hall,

The public is invited to a free block party and concert to dedicate Olney Street in Providence’s Mount Hope neighborhood as ‘Jeffrey Osborne Way,’ in honor of Jeffrey Osborne, who grew up in Providence and went on to become a superstar pop and R&B recording artist.

The block party will feature performances by Jeffrey Osborne, MusicOne at the Met, the Boys & Girls Club of Providence, and the RIPO Music School. The dedication will take place in front of Mr. Osborne’s childhood home at the corner of Olney Street and Pratt Street, where Mayor Taveras will unveil a plaque in his honor.

Singer/songwriter Osborne was the youngest of 12 (!) children born into the musical Osborne family (father, Clarence “Legs” Osborne, was a popular trumpeter who played with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington). Jeffrey’s career took off in the 70’s, recording several albums as singer for R&B/funk band L.T.D., leaving in 1980 to go solo. He’s still performing and may be known to a new generation for his recent appearance on a “Bachelor” finale singing, what else, On the Wings of Love.

(Natty dresser, btw. Not many people were getting it this right in the 80’s.)

Free block party, Olney and Pratt Streets, 3pm to 5pm, Saturday, April 21

The dream of the 90’s is alive in Pawtucket . . . Tickets are still available for the reunion of beloved Providence indie band Small Factory. People of a certain age are pretty excited about this event, hoping to hoist a few with people they may not have seen in a while to music that makes them really happy. Described at the Met website,

While never the most popular, most acclaimed, or most innovative act on the underground pop scene, in their own way, Small Factory crystallized and articulated the effervescent brilliance of American indie rock like no other band of their era. Small Factory formed in Providence in 1991, teaming singer/bassist Alex Kemp, singer/guitarist Dave Auchenbach, and singer/drummer Phoebe Summersquash. After earning a strong local following, the group made an enormous splash at the now-legendary Lotsa-Pop-Losers festival in Washington, D.C.

This show spins out of the current chickfactor 20 tour (doing it in spite of the kids) described by Pitchfork as  “. . . a marathon of 20th anniversary shows with a stacked lineup of twee luminaries.” Three shows are scheduled for Brooklyn and two in the D.C. area throughout April.

Opening acts for Saturday’s show: Honeybunch and Flower Gang.

$12, doors 8pm, show 9pm, Saturday, April 14, the Met, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket

Local granola good-guys got a mention in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Geoff Gordon and Keith Cooper, founders of the Providence Granola Project, were interviewed in a short piece about the history of the healthy snack food — Who Made That Granola? Started in 2008, the PGP makes tasty granola and provides jobs for international refugees.

You can find the PGP Saturdays at the Wintertime Farmers’ Market at Hope Artiste and they frequent other open markets during the warm months. The product is for sale at several retail locations around the state or go here to shop online. This month’s flavor is pistachio cardamom.

Nice artwork on the label of aquanauts harvesting the granola crop.

Here’s WPRO with the story.  And here’s the whole saga, caught on tape: