>>> Oh, and a Happy Winter Solstice to you, too! Ring in the first official day of winter ‚Äî that’s today, boss ‚Äî with the Winter Solstice Celebration/Woodland Bop Craft Faire at the Latvian Society. (Philebrity: Your new HQ for all things Latvian.) In addition to crafty X-Mass shopping, and performances from Fern Knight, Woodwose [...]

Chances are, you may not know who Tony Smyrski is, but there’s a greater chance you’ve come across one local media product or another he’s had an involvement with. Along with pal Dan Murphy, Smyrski’s co-publishes Megawords, and also works with Free News Projects and Swindle. But their latest project is a book called Public [...]

A few days ago, we relayed a reader’s discovery that the “Sunday 30%” Rule had been rather quietly abolished. The rule, you may recall, applied to bars that didn’t serve food ‚Äî in other words, if your bar did less than 30% of its business in food, it was illegal to be open on Sunday, [...]

There’s a really nice lady named Mouina in South Philly. She’s left her Christmas tree up for over a decade. This is her story.
Thanks to Woodshop Films.

What’s the best handle for what we talk about when we talk about Sugar House and Foxwoods?
SugarWoods
The Sugary Woods
ShitWoods
Foxy Fannypack’s Granny Gravy Train
Monte Columbus
Mom’s House

These also work well as freshman year of college band names; but if you live in West Philly, they’re perennials. Have at it. Please.

For Philly politics wonks, yesterday was like a double-decker taco: Thick and gooey — some might even say, uh, slimy — on the outside, crunchy and heartburn-producing on the inside. The crunch, of course, is that Sugar House and Foxwoods are now realities and no longer merely psychic boner bills for those that wish to [...]

[...] Ministry of Information has found a novel way to keep patrons puffing: Serve Swanson frozen dinners.
One of the caveats of the ban grants smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em waivers to bars that receive 90 percent or more of their income from drink sales. (This’ll soon drop to 80, if Mayor Street signs the revision City Council passed on [...]

>>> It’s a sad truth here at Philebrity that we just don’t get enough emails from bands asking, “Did you miss us at the American Latvian Youth Congress in Philadelphia?” Well, we did, but lucky for all of us, Macitajs on Acid ‚Äî Philly’s premiere Latvian-speaking punk rock band ‚Äî are playing at Johnny Brenda’s [...]

Westmont Development Group LLC — a group headed by Joanna Pang, who also runs the Trocadero in Philadelphia — plans to turn the vacant Westmont Theater into a live music venue.
However, the property can support only 86 parking spaces, Jennings said.
“That’s not nearly enough to support that size a theater,” he added.
[...]Resident Marian Bobyak questioned [...]

THIS AFTERNOON at 3:00pm @ corner of 9th and Washington (in front of
the seafood place) - Press Conference and Rally down in South
Philadelphia

THIS EVENING at 6:00pm starting at the Sugarhouse site (North Delaware
Ave. at Shackamaxon St.) and then going to the Foxwoods site (Columbus
Blvd, just north of Home Depot and WalMart) - Community Gathering
sponsored by [...]

¬? Oh man: Is Fishtown Racist? [PhillyBlog]
¬? Take the skinheads bowling, take them bowling: Introducing the Northern Liberties National Front Disco. [NoLibs.org]
¬? Oddly, one of the only intelligent discussions of Murderdelphia we’ve seen this year is from the same board that brought you the “emo hipster coke-hop” rant a few weeks ago. [215hiphop]
¬? Deep C [...]

Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia, a $560 million project in South Philadelphia will be built on a 30-acre parcel off Columbus Boulevard, north of Home Depot and Target.
Developers say that by November 2008, they will have installed 3,000 slot machines, restaurants, shops, and a 2,000-seat entertainment complex. Investors include Quincy Jones, Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, and 76ers [...]

Allen Iverson, you were nobody’s bitch. You will be missed, pal.
Related: SportsIllustrated: AI Timeline

>>> Espers get the year-end love from hither to yon: Mojo, Q, Uncut, L.A. Times, Dusted and, oh God help them: Colin Meloy of the Decemberists’s list. Gross. [LATimes/FilterMag]
>>> Man Man nab #20 on the ‘Fork’s Top 50 Albums, and that is nothing to fuck around with; Spank Rock and Man Man show up on [...]

[...] according to the board, the mayor’s analysis and recommendation won’t be among the documents and presentations it considers when it decides [...] where to put the city’s two slot parlors.
“The time period for public input has expired, which was communicated by our staff to the mayor’s staff,” gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach wrote in [...]

[Australian] Treasurer Peter Costello has criticised US pop star Pink for joining a campaign against Australian sheep farmers, questioning her knowledge of the industry.
Pink today joined the US animal rights group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in calling for a consumer boycott of Australian wool products.
“I don’t know if Pink is an expert [...]

Speaking on the red carpet outside the Prince Music Theater, at 14th and Chestnut streets, he talked about his struggle to get the film produced.
“Hopefully, people will take this as an example… There’s a message in here that I want to leave people with.
“The older you get, the more you feel as if life is [...]

Alan Mann existed in the strange, incestuous Philly new wave netherworld of the late ’70s/early ’80s where Stephen Starr, Mikey Wild, The Hooters, The Stray Cats and Gary Heidnik all could have been at the same show, awaiting fates about as diverse as they get. In this movie, Mann played the Eddie of Eddie & [...]