The Providence Art Festival is happening downtown on Westminster Street.  Now is the perfect opportunity to venture off College Hill and discover one of Providence’s greatest strengths: its art community.  The festival runs today from 10 am to 6 pm! Shut your computer and head down the hill! Now! Go!

Photo by Ana Colón / BlogDailyHerald

Here at The Netflix Files, we work to find the hidden gems of Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature, the films and TV series that have gone largely unnoticed by the streaming community. If you’re into corporate espionage and/or cute canines facing mortal danger, be sure to check out last week’s post on Damages (or, perhaps, this website).

This week we’ll be covering a film recently added to the Watch Instantly database, also a frontrunner to win Best Documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. Exit Through the Gift Shop is the first film to be directed by infamous street artist Banksy, who has delighted in spreading his graffiti-based anarchy since the early ’90s. You may remember his subversive take on The Simpsons theme that aired this past October.

The film tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman with a video camera who sets out to capture the world of street art. Guetta is allowed the privilege of spending time with some of the very best artists — including Shepard Fairey, the RISD alum who designed both the Obama “HOPE” poster and the iconic “OBEY” stickers at Nice Slice. Eventually, he finds his way into the good graces of the elusive Banksy, who allows him an all-access pass into his world. [Read more →]

Max Heiges's masterpiece "The Juggler"

A frat’s Saturday night dilemma: after many rounds of beer pong and shotgunning, empty Keystones cover the sticky basement floor. What to do? One Dartmouth student’s answer: turn it into art.

Max Heiges, Dartmouth art intern and football player, incorporated the classic frat beverage into his installation piece “The Juggler.” Much like anyone who supports themselves on Keystone, the sculpture seems like it is about to collapse from too much alcohol intake. But the precariously balanced sculpture stays afloat,  incorporating a couple of seemingly floating chairs and a lot of cases of empty Keystone, all of course donated by Dartmouth frat members. Who knew a Saturday night’s worth of beer could become a contribution to the art world? And, like with any other serious work of contemporary art, we must ask what does it mean? Heiges’s answer: “Nobody rages anymore.” Hmmmm. Right.

What we want to know: why hasn’t some hipster vis art student already done this with PBR?

Staying in Providence over long weekend?  Why not check a few things off of that good old Brown must-do list:

1. The Ratty challenge. This Saturday’s menu features eggplant parm for lunch and “tortellini provencale” for dinner—both of which ought to make fine meals indeed.  Just make sure you bring others: solo all-day-Ratty-sits can get mighty boring.
2. The RISD art museum. Oh yeah, by the way, that art school down the street houses a museum with some of the most famous impressionist paintings in the world.  If you haven’t gone down there yet, or if you’re just hankering for a dose of the finer side of college life (Wednesday night FishCo can’t satisfy that craving for everyone, after all), make sure you check it out this weekend.
3. Federal Hill.  Federal Hill, a.k.a. “the heartbeat of Providence”, is home to some ridiculously awesome (and by that, we mean out-of-this-world-delicious) Italian restaurants.  And no, they’re not all absurdly expensive.  Stick to the basics and make sure you get something with red sauce.  Om-nom-nom.
4. Host a potluck dinner. Okay, so we lied.  You could very easily graduate from Brown without ever hosting a potluck dinner and not feel empty inside.  But why would you ever want to go four years at college without ever going for a lil’ po’luck?   Invite others to cook their own dishes (and we know, dorm kitchens aren’t very well equipped, but that’s half the fun!) and bring them over for some old fashioned fine-(do-it-yourself)-dining.
5. The SciLi challenge. 14 floors, 14 shots. Can you do it?*

*The BlogDailyHerald accepts no legal responsibility for any injury you may inflict on yourself or others as a result of attempting the SciLi challenge.  There’s a reason they call it a challenge (otherwise it would be…say, the SciLi walk in the park.  And where’s the fun in that?).

RISD’s new Take a Break festival will take place on May 8^th from 1 pm to 8 pm, showcasing nine music acts and a variety of student art.  Advance tickets are available for purchase at the RISD Office of Student Life for $10 with a Brown student ID.  Expect a big turnout to see/buy artwork and get some good local grub.