Entertainment venues are closed. There’s no going to the movies, concerts, sporting events or plays…just reruns. But that hasn’t stopped Frank Picozzi from acheiving his goal of bringing some entertainment to every Warwick neighborhood from Lakewood to Potowomut.

He started on his quest Saturday night on Harrison Avenue, a short distance from St. Peter Church where he stopped his pickup truck for about 10 minutes before assuming his rounds. The show featuring lights and music – three songs that we’ll get to later – brought smiles to the faces of about a dozen area residents who stood on their porches and the sidewalk. They made a point of maintaining their proper distance. There wasn’t any dancing in the street.

Picozzi, who lives on Gristmill Road in the Hoxsie neighborhood, is renowned for his pixel computer controlled Christmas displays. They are yearlong creations that transform his house into an animated display of swirling, dancing, bursting lights synchronized to Christmas songs and music. The show premieres – and Frank always has something new to wow the spectators – on Thanksgiving night to friends and family and then runs for the Christmas season. People, if they can find a parking spot close enough, can watch from the cars and tune in on their radios or gather in front of his home.

It's no wonder then that Frank started getting calls when people across the country turned on their Christmas lights as a means of brightening spirits in a pandemic.

Frank thought about it, but not for long. Staging his home for another round of Christmas would take weeks. And then there was the matter of traffic and possible crowds, just what everyone is being told to avoid.

That didn’t stop Frank. He had set up his truck to bring a part of his Christmas show to Hasbro Children’s Hospital for the Tuesday good night lights program to cheer up children. If that worked for children, Frank thought he might be able to get people throughout the city to smile. He went to work, borrowing on some of the new elements he plans to introduce this Christmas and partnering his pixel magic with three upbeat songs – Hamster Dance, Gummy Bear and Baby Shark.

Frank is posting his itinerary on his and the Positive Warwick Facebook pages. He’s installed an app on his Facebook page that shows where he is in live time so they can be on the watch when he comes by. The traveling show starts at 8 p.m., but given the longer periods of sunlight he figures he’s got a month to reach every neighborhood.

“It’s not a great time in our lives right now,” he said. “We need a smile.”