Friday — @Firehouse 13, Plow United, the Down and Outs, the McGunks, Sourpunch @the Met, Max Creek @AS220, Von Donovan, Faber, Dan Mills @Fête Lounge, Trails, Consuelo’s Revenge, Great Big Circles, Dylan Sevey and the Gentlemen

Saturday — @the Parlour, Mark Cutler and Men of Great Courage, the Bob Kendall Band @AS220, Tovarish, Sea of Bones, Traces of Empire, Vomit Arsonist @Firehouse 13, Hope Anchor, Atlantic Thrills, the Legendary Rockin’ Prophets, Billy Bouchard

Sunday — @AS220, Doble Filo, Medusah Black, Pappyk @Machines With Magnets, The Body, Sandworm, Funeral Cone, Songs, Night Mode

(Photo of Atlantic Thrills)

(5.9) Join ‘Not About The Buildings’ Thursday for micro-memoir!, an evening of self-discovery and sharing that is a lot more fun than the words “an evening of self-discovery and sharing” might have you believe. Now in its fourth year, micro-memoir! is hosted by the Providence Athenaeum and facilitated by very short story writer (and publisher) Karen Donovan, who co-founded Paragraph magazine over a quarter of a century ago. For twenty-five years Paragraph published work that was, as you might have guessed from the title, one paragraph long. So who better to walk us through our micro-memoir!s?

In two hours you will have a 200-word memoir written, edited, and shared with an appreciative and not overly critical audience. This really is probably the most fun event that Not About The Buildings does, and it works with all age levels, so bring your teenaged friends and your elderly loved ones, not to mention anyone else whose life you might like to know just a little more about.

5pm refreshments, 5:30pm event begins, Thursday, May 9, Providence Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

Yesterday I wrote a rather long piece about Homeland Security and the growth of domestic counter-terrorism organizations throughout the country. I had recently watched the excellent Frontline report “Top Secret America” on PBS and was hoping to make more people aware of it. At some point during the last 24 hours the post was mysteriously deleted. It has completely disappeared — when you Google the title “But are were any safer” the link comes up, but the page itself is empty “Not Found.”

I’m not going to lie to you, this feels a little weird. The Providence Daily Dose started in 2007 and this has never happened to any other post, ever. I guess I will find out if it was actually a government entity the next time I try to fly out of the country, but it has occurred to us that perhaps a tech-savvy malcontent could have zapped the post hoping we would all freak out and get all balled up in conspiracy theories and sound like idiots. It could be solar flares or a totally random glitch.

The problem is I have no copy of the original post and I don’t have the energy to recreate it.  Just take 53 minutes and watch “Top Secret America” which reflects two years of investigative reporting by Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post journalist Dana Priest. Then read yesterday’s Providence Journal article “Response demanded new kind of police force” and see if you share Rhode Island State Police Col. Steven G. O’Donnell’s enthusiasm for this increase in intelligence gathering and the massive, and hugely expensive, militarization of state and local police departments. For more on how extensive this is, go to the Washington Post interactive “Top Secret America” map where anyone in the country can locate the counter-terrorism organizations located in their neighborhood.

We are looking into it, and I have made a copy of this post.

A new production of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane is running at the Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket now through June 2nd.

In a dimly lit kitchen in a shabby cottage in a backwater village in the west of Ireland, selfish, conniving Mag and her embittered 40-year-old virginal daughter, Maureen, stew in mutual loathing. When Maureen is offered a last chance at love, she sees an opportunity to escape. But Mag has other ideas, setting in motion a chain of betrayals and tragedy, both heartbreaking and hilarious.

Directed by Judith Swift. Seen here: Wendy Overly as Mag.

Photo by Peter Goldberg.

Through June 2nd, Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket

Tuesday — @Machines With Magnets, Screaming Females, Black Wine, Gertrude Atherton, Whore Paint @AS220, Bill Bondsmen, Rampant Decay, Spinach, Crucidix

Wednesday — @the Met, Foals, Surfer Blood, Blondfire @Dusk, metal night

Thursday — @Lupo’s, Silversun Pickups, Bad Books @AS220, Joshua Gannon-Salomon, Denise Moffat with Kerry Callery, Survivors of the Kraken @Nick-A-Nee’s, Dennis McCarthy Band @the Met, Zomboy @Machines With Magnets, Verse, Sabertooth Zombie, Power, Sweet Jesus

(Photo of Surfer Blood)

The Providence College Student Congress is helping to reduce the use of plastic bottles. Starting next fall all clubs and organizations will be required to ban bottled water at all events. (Brown University has already joined other ivy league colleges in taking similar steps.)

Further, the students at PC are urging the establishment of 17 “hydration stations” on campus. Jeez, how thirsty are these kids? They don’t need water, they need insulin.

I thought everybody knew by now that the “eight glasses a day” canard was a fraud perpetrated by the water-bottling industry. It’s been totally debunked; there is no evidence to support the claim and there never was (HuffPo). Bottled water is a waste of your money and harms the environment. And Providence tap water is some of the best in the country.

(5.7) Marissa Paternoster marches to her own drummer and wears very sensible shoes while doing it. New Jersey trio Screaming Females hurtles along, always on the verge of jumping the tracks completely, but then they all end up in the same place somehow. And the girl can play the guitar. Tuesday night at Machines With Magnets with openers Whore Paint, Gertrude Atherton, and Black Wine.

Tuesday, May 7, Machines With Magnets, 400 Main Street, Pawtucket

Because somebody’s got to do it. On May 5, 1862 the Mexican army prevailed in an unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla. This made Americans thirsty. Thus we have Cinco de Mayo.

Head downtown today for the In Downcity Cinco de Mayo block party. There will be food trucks including Poco Loco Tacos and Mijos Tacos, the Rock and Roll Yard Sale and activities for kids.

Check out the Mariachi de Brown, Brown University’s official mariachi band and Rhode Island’s only mariachi band, since 2005.

Noon to 6pm, Sunday, May 5, Westminster between Eddy and Clemence Streets, directions

(5.5) I want this frock coat. Heads up Alice fans, the Cable Car will be screening Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as performed by the Royal Ballet of London

Those familiar with Lewis Carroll’s literary menagerie of colorful characters will enjoy the clarity with which Christopher Wheeldon portrays them in dance. The whole Company is drawn into the fun, dancing a myriad of quirky characters: a twitchy White Rabbit, a tap dancing Mad Hatter, a sinuous caterpillar and so many more.

Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes plus one intermission.

Noon, Sunday, May 5, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street

(5.5) The HiFi (Historical Fiction) Collaborative, in partnership with the Providence Public Library and the Providence Athenaeum, presents “The Craft of Historical Fiction Forum,” with authors Adam Braver, Ann Hood, Thomas Cobb, and Taylor Polites.

Local historical fiction authors Braver (Misfit), Hood (The Obituary Writer), Cobb (There Will be Blood in Their Eyes), and moderator Polites (The Rebel Wife), will discuss their recent works and explore the fine line between literature and history, creative expression and scholarly research, poetic license and factual accuracy.

The HiFi Writers’ Collaborative — a writing group in which participants explore the challenges of historical fiction writing and critique each other’s work — meets one weeknight a month, alternating between Providence Public Library and The Providence Athenaeum.

Free and open to the public, 2:30pm to 4:30pm, Sunday, May 5, Providence Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

We were the first. On this date in 1776 Rhode Island issued The Act of Renunciation repealing its prior allegiance to the British Crown and becoming the first colony to declare independence.

. . . whereas George the Third, King of Great Britain, forgetting his dignity, regardless of the compact most solemnly entered into, ratified and confirmed, to the inhabitants of this Colony, by his illustrious ancestors, and till of late fully recognized by him—and entirely departing from the duties and character of a good King, instead of protecting, is endeavoring to destroy the good people of this Colony, and of all the United Colonies, by sending fleets and armies to America, to confiscate our property, and spread fire, sword and desolation, throughout our country, in order to compel us to submit to the most debasing and detestable tyranny, whereby we are obliged by necessity, and it becomes our highest duty, to use every means, with which God and nature have furnished us, in support of our invaluable rights and privileges; to oppose that power which is exerted only for our destruction.

The handwritten Act of Renunciation is housed at the state archives.

(5.4) Head down to Benefit Street, between Waterman and College Streets, for the Spring Alumni and Student Art Sale — paintings, jewelry, glass, ceramics, prints, textiles, and more.

10am to 4pm, Saturday, May 4, RISD Art Sale, Benefit Street

(5.3) Friday’s Salon at the Athenaeum — “Curating the City: Temporary Installations, Permanent Impressions” series, part 3 – Artist/Researcher Adj Marshall on her “Wasteland National Park” project, a museo-memorial for the interstitial space between the Providence East Side Railroad Tunnel and the Providence Drawbridge.

Interstices, the empty spaces or gaps between spaces full of structures or matter, are easily overlooked and forgotten. Wasteland National Park, a project of Wasteland Twinning an international network of artists who are developing creative research practices to explore the role of wasteland spaces in contemporary cityscapes, seeks to explore and understand this interstitial Providence space by means of creative research and collaborative interpretation with the community. Marshall will discuss cultural, economic, historical, and ecological interpretations of space, industrial ruins, “place making,” and heterotopias. Series curated by James Brayton Hall.

Free and open to the public, 5pm to 7pm, Friday, May 3, Providence Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

Friday — @AS220, Criss Cross Orchestra, Double Decker Band @Speakeasy Local 121, Arc Isis, Laura Cortese, Sweater Set @Nick-A-Nee’s, Mark Cutler and Men of Great Courage @the Spot, the Alchemystics, Sophistifunk, Cosmic Dust Bunnies @Lupo’s, Rebelution, J. Boog, Hot Rain @Machines With Magnets, Moonface and Azita

Saturday — @Firehouse 13, Ben Walsh album release, Local Lights, Kayla Ringelheim @the Met, Itchy Fish, Mad Poet @AS220, Thrillhouse, Best Practices, Maritime Pilot @the Spot, the Indobox, Jimkata, Bujak @Nick-A-Nee’s, Ten-foot Polecats, Cannibal Ramblers, Dead Ex’s @Dusk, Atlantic Thrills, Liquor Store, Pixels

Sunday — @the Roots (Rock Girls Robots benefit), Roz Raskin and the Rice Cakes, Malyssa BellaRosa and the Liberators, Jenn Kitten, Nymphidels, Gertrude Atherton, For the Love of Sloane, Castle, Chrissy Gavin, Royal Ram, Gabby Rizzle @the Parlour, Thr33 Piece Suit, CR the Beast, Big Jon Tierney and Kris Hansen @Lupo’s, Fungus Amungus, Santa Mamba, Daddie Long Legs

Photo of Nymphidels

Lots of people are about to get invited to lots of weddings. These are the problems you want to have.

Following a final 56-15 vote in the House Governor Lincoln Chafee signed into law a bill making Rhode Island the 10th state to allow same-sex couples to marry. The first weddings will take place August 1st when the law takes effect. From The Providence Journal,

“The best thing now is that your marriage is recognized, just as you would hope if you were a straight couple your marriage would be recognized in all 50 states,” said Jenna Lafayette, a Providence resident who, along with her wife, Kim Ahern, was among the special guests invited to view the House vote from the chamber floor.

The couple were married in Vermont last September by state Rep. Christopher Blazejewski, D-Providence.

Upon signing the bill the Governor announced, “You are free to marry the person you love.”

(5.4) Man of letters Matthew Lawrence will host the Pawtucky Derby a.k.a. “Headmaster No. 5 Release Party” this Saturday at Machines With Magnets. Mint juleps at 9pm with dancing to follow. Pony race at midnight.

Headmaster is the biannual print magazine for the sophisticated man-lover who appreciates smart writing and thought-provoking art.

Headmaster is dedicated to the print form. Each issue of the magazine is full color, 88 pages and printed on high quality 80# paper in a compact 7”x10” format in a limited edition run of 1000.

Lawrence is a writer, editor and curator from Providence. In addition to co-editing and co-publishing Headmaster, he runs a small local literary events organization. (Mr. Bigshot used to write for us but now he’s too busy what with his little pamphlet and his salons and his bees and saving the libraries and all.)

9pm, Saturday, May 4, Machines With Magnets, 400 Main Street, Pawtucket, facebook

Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and Sock & Buskin presents the 2013 “Festival of Dance.” This year’s festival features performances by resident TAPS dance companies: Dance Extension and New Works/World Traditions, as well as the choreography of several visiting scholars from the US and China.

Performances by Dance Extension, created by founding director of dance Julie Adams Strandberg include reprisals of “Ice Images” and “Limon Etude”, as well as the premiere of “Jehovah’s Watch” by Brown alumna Laura Bennett.

“Night Run,” choreographed and performed by members of New Works/World Traditions, an international dance troupe, addresses the most human of compulsions toward both love and violence.

Brown alumna Emily Beattie rounds out the lineup with her piece “Shadowline,” a performance based on the life and death of Beattie’s uncle and his ham radio.

$15 adults, May 2nd through May 5th, 8pm Thursday through Saturday/2pm Sunday, Leeds Theatre, 77 Waterman Street, directions