According to Hotwire’s monthly hotel rate report Philadelphia is one of the best places in the country–in terms of value–to be renting a hotel room. A 3.5-star hotel room(such as the Warwick, Latham, or the Marriott Downtown) will run you an average of $77/night, indicating a 16% price drop from last year, and inching out [...]

If you remember your Theater 103 humanities-requirement course, you may remember the works of a certain 20th century Romanian/French wonder-weirdo named Eugene Ionesco. He wrote The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice Chauve) sometime before 1950, and since 1957 it hasn’t left Paris’ stages for a single season. Brat Productions in Philly is putting the production on [...]

Is the SS United States going to be moved to Manhattan? Dan McSweeney, Upper West Side of NYC dweller and Executive Director of the SS United States Conservancy (a non-profit group founded in 1992 dedicated to preserving the ship) is pushing for the historic cruiseliner to be moved to Chelsea piers. According to the Community [...]

Right now we can’t get enough Italo-Disco. Mostly known for their 1980 hit I’m Ready the pioneer Italo-Disco outfit Kano released Another Life in 1983. The set design’s simplicity is more than made up for by the singer’s great voice and interaction with the camera.

We’ll remind you of this event as the date approaches, but right now mark your calendars for Luck in the Valley, a Jack Rose Memorial release party for the posthumous released album on Saturday, February 13th at the Latvian Society. The show features a great lineup of performers: –D. Charles Speer & the Helix –Thurston [...]

On Monday, a bill that would allow the use of medical marijuana for “those with chronic and terminal diseases” passed both Houses in Trenton and is now headed for Corzine’s desk. It is scheduled to be signed into law by next Tuesday. Within nine months, card-carrying (as in those who are given a registry identification [...]

The following news should be featured in a banner ad. We just heard that next Friday night (Jan 22nd) Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ and Ronnie are hosting a ‘Halfway to the Jersey Shore’ party at McFadden’s (one of the bars south of Spring Garden on 3rd in that bizarre back alley of the Social Security building). We [...]

These fantastic airchecks from WMMR‘s archives are from an era when radio was truly great. They feature the talents of DJs like Michael Tearson, David Dye, and a personal favorite, Luke O’Reilly who was famous for playing the Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick in its entirety the day the album was released. Not only [...]

Apparently the Table Games Bill included an extension for Foxwoods to finally get their shit together (they have until December 31, 2012). Board Chairman Greg Fajt was quoted as playing the bad daddy to Foxwoods, “I think that those that think that this is a foregone conclusion that they will be extended are wrong. I [...]

With an unemployment rate of 11.1% (as of October 2009) Philadelphia isn’t as bad as some other US cities (Detroit is at 14.7%). But for those of you who are still searching Craigslist daily, you may have a glimmer of hope. Mayor Nutter announced the “Philly Works” initiative today, a program that sets workers up [...]

StorySlam is a twice-monthly open-mic storytelling event by First Person Arts. Held usually at L’Etage on the fourth Tuesday of each month, tonight begins their second Monday-of-the-month StorySlam at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut Street). The concept is this: each month has a theme, and members of the audience are invited to share a personal [...]

One can say with confidence that anything Apple releases will probably be successful (excluding the Air). Supposedly on January 27th Apple will unveil their version of a tablet computer (the iSlate), bearing resemblance to a larger ipod touch (10-11 inches) with a webcam, and will possibly be sold via Verizon and an unlocked, pricier model [...]

In the spirit of Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, Philadelphia-based Jen Rice (Magnet City Kids, The Celebs) and Gavin Riley (Rowan and Hastings, Height) perform an original piece, Splendid Love. One of the best lines describes love from a self-centered point of view: “When I look into your face, I can see my own face [...]

Yesterday at 3:00PM, the weather “felt like” 20 degrees and a group of people gathered outside of City Hall to participate in Philadelphia’s first No Pants Subway Ride 2010. The No Pants Ride was conceived by ImprovEverywhere, a improv comedy/performance art group from New York responsible for Frozen Grand Central and the Fake U2 concert [...]

Just as we had been rolling up our yoga mats and stacking up our Reebok Steps at the Philebrity offices, we got this tip from Joey who is still in the wilds of off-season Martha’s Vineyard: Cavemen In New York. Geico jokes aside, the 26 year-old John Durant (advertising-world worker, Harvard Alum ’05) does in [...]

When we caught up with Jay Purdy and Matt Gibson of The Extraordinaires last night, they were en route to a community theater performance of Ribbons of War, the full-scale “tragic romantic opera” written by he and his fellow band members in 2007. Just having finished a similar concept-album, Electric and Benevolent based on the [...]

More Philly favorites, as seen on Pitchfork TV. (thanks Jersey Dan for the heads up)

PhilaPlace is sort of like StoryCorps, the project that was set up in Grand Central for awhile where you could literally sit and just blather for awhile about your life and it would be recorded and preserved in the Library of Congress. Created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, it’s fun website to browse around, [...]

Something about the snow and how goddamn slick the members of West Germany-based, Jamaican-born disco group Boney M look made me want to post this video. From 1978. You will have this song in your head all day.

FRIDAY –Tonight is First Friday. This means that there’s a number of openings around town, most of them centered in the one monster nucleus that is the Vox/Copy/Tiger Strikes Asteroid/Marginal Utility/AHNVHS building (319 N 11th St). –1026 is rumored to be having a good show as well, we heard someone there was quilting a yert, [...]