Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority

One bus stop created as part of The Bus Shelter Art Project Collection, a California initiative.

The solicitation: Request For Proposals: Providence Bus Shelter Art Panels & Seating | City of Providence

The City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism and the Department of Planning and Development in partnership with the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA), invite artists and artist/fabricator teams to submit their qualifications and concepts for art panels and seating to be included in bus shelters along our city's Broad and North Main Street transit corridors. This is a first of its kind project for the City of Providence and we enthusiastically await artist response

A total of seventeen sites along these two bus routes will receive art installations as a result of this program and call for art. Stipends awarded to selected artists will range from $8,000 to $23,000 for concept, fabrication and installation of the bus shelter and seating elements. Past experience in fabrication and public art design is a requirement for this RFP. Artists without such a background are encouraged to team up with the appropriate 3D artists and fabricators.

All proposals must be received by July 8, 2013, 4 pm

A public Information Session will be held on June 25, 2013 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at 444 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island in the 1st floor meeting space. Staff from the City, RIPTA and Klopfer Martin Design Group (the project's landscape architect) will be present to answer questions. Questions may also be submitted by email no later than June 25th.

Inspiration:

-- Seattle PI: Cool bus stops from around the world

-- Google Image search for "art bus shelter"

-- The Bus Shelter Art Project Collection

Rhode Island Seafood Collaborative

You can pick up the calendar above free at any Farm Fresh RI farmers market this summer.

At Rhode Island Seafood, the Web site of the Rhode Island Seafood Collaborative, you can download a hi-res version or see a chart of which fish are in season when.

I only vaguely knew that some fish are Rhode Islanders -- Block Island swordfish and quahaugs, for instance -- and some just aren't. (Salmon comes to mind.)

But I'd never seen a list of local seafood till now. Here it is, from the same folks who bring you the calendar.

SEAFOOD COMMON TO RHODE ISLAND WATERS

Major RI Species

Fluke (summer flounder)
Herring
Jonah crab
Lobster
Mackerel
Monkfish
Oysters, farmed
Quahogs / Littlenecks
Scup
Sea scallops
Skate
Whiting (silver hake)

Shellfish

Bay scallops
Conch
Mussels, farmed
Oysters, farmed
Oysters, wild
Periwinkles
Razor clams
Quahogs / Littlenecks
Sea scallops
Slipper limpets
Steamer clams

Squid

Longfin squid (loligo), calamari
Shortfin squid (illex), bait

Crustaceans

Blue crab
Jonah crab
Lobster
Mantis shrimp
Rock crab

Seaweed

Finfish

Albacore tuna
American plaice (dabs)
Bigeye tuna
Black sea bass
Bluefin tuna
Bluefish
Bonito
Cod
Conger eel
Fluke (summer flounder)
Grey sole
Haddock
Herring
John Dory
Mackerel
Mahi mahi
Mako shark
Monkfish
Pollock
Red hake
Scup
Sea raven
Sea robin
Skate
Smooth dogfish
Spiny dogfish
Striped bass
Swordfish
Tautog
Tilefish
White hake
Whiting (silver hake)
Winter flounder
Yellowfin tuna
Yellowtail flounder

Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

A customer selects a drink outside Munchies, a food truck serving burgers, fresh falafel and more in Providence and Connecticut.

We've added four food trucks this week to the Providence Journal's Food Trucks list on Twitter:

Munchies Food Truck

Eddie's BBQ

Go-SpressoRI

Lotus Pepper

We'd love it if they'd all tweet where they are and where they're going to be.

The full list is now in our always-updating original blog post: 29 food trucks on our list, but they aren't all piping up

Many of their Twitters point to a Web sites with menus, schedules and sometimes even a blog.

Sheila Lennon

Bruce McCrae (aka Rudy Cheeks) plays harmonica with The Zimmermen at the annual Bob Dylan Revival Friday night at Patrick's Pub in Providence. From left, Vincent Pasternak, Rick Bellaire, McCrae, Nick DiBiasio, Fred Wilkes and Richard Sage. Click the photo to see it larger.

As the smallest state in the Union, Rhode Island is often used as a measure of size when describing other countries. How Many Rhode Islands is provided to pundits, newscasters, and the general public as a way of easily calculating Rhode Island-based measurements.

Plug in a country and the site returns the number of Rhode Islands that will fit into it. Three, for Gambia; 3066 for the United States.

You'll also get a "fun fact." Most of us have heard these facts before. For example, "Rhode Island's state rock is Cumberlandite, a type of iron ore found only in Rhode Island" Some are not quite true: "..."Victory Over Japan Day" is an official holiday."

Jerimoth Hill is probably in there somewhere, just waiting for somebody to ask about the right country. (It's not France, Spain or Germany, China, Japan or Monaco.)

The odd Google map view is unnecessary -- one silhouetted map of Rhode Island sitting inside the borders of somewhere else. But it's all harmless enough.

The right-brain side of the annual Dylan Night invitation to those on the mailing list

Providence's annual Bob Dylan night happens at Patrick's Pub, 381 Smith St., Fri. May 17, starting at 7 p.m. $8. (401) 808-0184. This long-running gig can be corny, smart, funky, badly lit and has my heart.

Dylan Night is not slick. Nobody's analyzing, criticizing, this is a gathering of fans. There's obscure video of Bob, requests, acoustic sets by live bands in a Smith Hill neighborhood bar.

Richard Ribb and The BusKings, who've played the last two years, will return. Here's an mp3 to let you hear what they sound like: "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight".

And this year the The Zimmermen, who've had their own Dylan Nights up north in Pascoag, are joining forces. Tunes from the Zimmermen -- Rick Bellaire, Nick DiBiasio, Vincent Pasternak, Richard Sage and Fred Wilkes -- playing live in 2012:

-- "You Angel You", Fred Wilkes on vocal.

-- "Farewell Angelina", Rick Bellaire singing.

Dylan's birthday is May 24. He'll be 72.

The party starts promptly at 7.

Bonus:

You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you'll say
When you get home

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

It's about a journalist.

May 2013:
Search Engine Land: Google & Time Inc. Launch Timelapse: See How Any Part Of The World Has Changed Over Time

Timelapse
Watch the world change over the course of nearly three decades of satellite photography
Providence hasn't changed much -- from a satellite's faraway perspective -- but I can't find a way to link to it; click "Explore the World" there and plug in "providence, ri."

April 2012:

Historical photos from The Providence Journal, then and now,

These can go back to the 1860s, and are high-res.

Changes are significant.

Peter Phipps

Haven Bros. backup truck

Cassandra Giusti, speaking for her husband, Haven Bros. owner Ivan Giusti, said the trailer latch on the main truck broke, and will take a week to fix.

Meanwhile, they're using their backup, a truck they sometimes take to events.

New Cat Species Found on Google Street View, pictured at right. The perils of stitching when one object is moving.

THE WORST ROOM: "A blog about trying to find affordable housing in New York City." You can spend a lot of money for a lower bunk or a closet. A garret would be a luxury over these.

NYT paid obit: "Waffle House lost a loyal customer on April 30, 2013. Antonia W. "Toni" Larroux died after a battle with multiple illnesses: lupus, rickets, scurvy, kidney disease and feline leukemia."

(Online-Only Notices) Something to keep in mind as you write your tongue-in-cheek life story.

These people applied to go to Mars. I am not among them.

They Tweet where they're setting up shop, some several times daily -- every time they move -- others just on weekends or at special events.

We're up to 21 25 food trucks, although two haven't posted this year. They may be back as the weather warms, so we won't give up on them.

Lotus Pepper (Thanks to Viet Le and Suzie Metivier for telling us about this Vietnamese food truck.)

PORTU-GALO (Thanks to Cassandra Duarte for the tip about this Portuguese food truck.)

Noble Knots (Thanks to Kimberley Nelson for telling us about them.)

Like No Udder

PVD Pudding Pops

plouf gastronomie

Rocket Street Food

Chez Pascal/ Truck

sugarush

FanCheezical

ROXY'S LOBSTER

Poco Loco Tacos

Mijos Tacos

Mama Kim's

Flour Girls Baking

Championship Melt

Joedega

The Coffee Guy

MootzaDeli

Panino Express

Sprout!

ClamJammersFoodTruck

Munchies Food Truck

Eddie's BBQ

Go-SpressoRI

Lotus Pepper Lotus Pepper

Know of others? Please tell me!

Haven't posted this year:

Little Billy's

Jevon Chan

It 's called "The Media" and had they not used a Roman interpretation of the letter "U" I wouldn't have been able to show it to you.

The new Web weekly, publishing Fridays, is the labor of love of some of the last Boston Phoenix staffers.

I love the spirit of this thing, the creative response to life being upended by karma, the gods, Plutonic economic forces, the fickle finger.

Their work, in a convenient link form, up to the point where I fell asleep and punted, slacker mode winning. No disrespect intended to stories I hadn't met yet:

Defining and saving the spirit of alt-weeklies by Liz Pelly. The mission statement.

IMMIGRANT SONGS Words from the Phoenix's former editor-in-chief / by Carly Carioli, former editor in chief now at boston.com ("new projects aimed at attracting younger readers"-- Dan Kennedy).

Mixtape: 8tracks radio | THE MEDIA MANIFESTO, Embedded. This would have improved my high school newspaper enormously. (Yes, I was its editor.)

WEED IN THE MEDIA Seeking enlightenment in Denver / by Ariel Shearer

Lisa Williams likes it too: The Pressthink of FvckTheMedia

It's done in minimalist grayscale and html, and those subtle ellipses are the links to the rest of the stories. The Media is anti-Seo, not using content as bait for eyeball counts, has no ads but takes donations.

I want this to be the seed of a new new media. I want to publish this entry now, incomplete as it is, so you might see it before the weekend and be happy something like The Media is holding down the righteous end of the need to know and write about it.

Go there...

The links all work, as well.

Here's the CERN blog post about it. (Yes, the Web comes from the same folks who brought us the Large Hadron Collider.) Restoring the first website

From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, record-store vendors will set up in the cafe, and there'll be live acoustic music in the theater. The first screening is at 7 p.m., and between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. DJ Squid spins vinyl. The second showing is at 9:30 p.m. The Rocket food plans to park in front of the theater.

Here's the trailer:

The Cable Car is at 204 South Main st., Providence . More information: 272-3970.

Proposed changes to your 2011 Form 1040

Amount due: $33,331

The W-2 numbers they were adjusting weren't my numbers. I hadn't claimed the education credit and mortgage insurance deductions they disallowed.

A call to the IRS the next day and a very savvy agent made sense of it all: My identity had been stolen. When I asked how he knew this was identity theft he said, "Someone used your name and Social Security number to file and received a refund of $5,787."

According to the W-2 filed with the IRS, I work at CVS. The IRS had two W-2s for me. The "underreported income" came from adding my real W-2 to the phony one.

Thinking back, I recall filing on tax day, encountering busy servers and getting a message that my return had been rejected because I had already filed. I thought it was an error, and part of my job here is to get software to behave. I had the bright idea to file using my husband's Social Security number, and it worked. The return was accepted and the state return was, too.

The thief didn't know I was married. He/she/it filed an individual return.

On the advice of a second agent I spoke with when I called to request an extension before any action was taken against me, I e-filed my 2012 return right away. It was initially rejected because I didn't know what the thief had listed as Adjusted Gross Income. The state rejected it because the feds had.

Fortunately, my pin from last year worked, and both returns were accepted. That's when I knew for sure that my 2011 return had been initially accepted -- I got the refund from the state. The IRS never notified me that my return was eventually rejected. I didn't notice they hadn't debited my account for my 2011 payment.

I took three days of vacation time to gather all my documents and prepare my response to the IRS. Here's the cover letter for the response package I sent to the Andover IRS office:

March 18, 2013

Dear IRS,

In addition to the documentation Mr. Covell (Badge number: xxxxxx) told me March 7 on the telephone to send -- the signed Affidavit of Identity Theft with a statement, and a scanned, legible copy of my R.I. driver's license -- I am also providing a copy of the 2011 joint 1040 that we thought we had e-filed last April and my legitimate 2011 W-2. We have today filed that return on paper and sent it to Hartford along with a check for the $222 we owed (copy enclosed).

In addition, I'm enclosing an email from TaxAct software confirming that "your e-filing was rejected due to your SSN being used on another filed tax return."

I suspect that the thief got my personal information when (credit card company) was hacked in October, 2011. I'm enclosing a copy of the emailed Fraud Alert of Oct. 29, 2011 that preceded the issuance of new cards and numbers.

I tried to report the identity theft to the Providence (R.I.) police today but they refused to accept a report without something in writing from the IRS confirming the theft. I hope part of the resolution of this process is such a statement.

Thank you,

I was thinking that it's almost time to call to ask for another extension when I got another letter from the IRS on Friday.

"Based on your response dated 03/18/2013, no further action is required at this time for your 2011 case. We have placed an identity theft indicator on your account and are completing all adjustments to your accounts."

I had been prepared for a long, drawn-out process, but this arrived 37 days, three lost vacation days and two phone calls after their first notification of underpayment.

What I would do differently: If you get a rejection when you e-file, take a screenshot of it and save it. Print out your return and mail it. Enclose a note that the e-file was rejected along with a printout of the screenshot. Make copies of everything. Call the IRS and tell someone. Get their name and badge number and do exactly what they tell you to do.