The book's point is that the really meaningful changes in Philadelphia are possible because Philadelphia is, indeed, so manageable and malleable for people without enormous means. A bad economy doesn't need to mean the end of possibility.

The fact that local agriculture could better fuel their local economies attracted the attention of many Italian municipalities. And so out of the Slow Food movement came the Slow City movement, which shares the same philosophy of keeping it local, small and environmentally sound.

"It's not just the Republican Party — it's all of our leaders."

"I could do that now if I wanted to. It would take nothing but a phone call. I'd be better off but I wouldn't feel good about it."

In reality, Palin, being college-educated and flush with enough cash to buy her kid a (pre-owned) tanning bed, doesn't quite fit into the demographic. For political purposes, though, her conservative persona is supposed to fit Wal-Mart Women like a 100 percent polyester acrylic, made-in-Vietnam, plucked-off-a-clearance-table glove.

Ebersole says the galleries and art spaces have become pompously exclusive with a fixation on financial markup, and the only venue that offered itself to him was the city. What is really being liberated, then, is art from galleries.

Colors tend to be limited and coolly synthetic. Compositions emphasize abstract values. Every setup seems planned for photography, but there's a striking sensibility reflecting that brief moment of vision which does not take account of identifying objects or meaning, a kind of emotional or even cognitive disengagement.

It's a tone that Nolen reinforces throughout the production, staged with great éclat but never overtly showy, and designed with wonderful elegance. Roles that are often overplayed here have dimensionality.

Kathryn MacMillan's expertly crafted production seems to push the comedy at first, but that just lulls us into false comfort as the struggles within this microcosmic hothouse turn increasingly grotesque.

The most fundamental rule of art collecting is this: Buy what you like. It's that easy.

"I think people will always love zines. It's one thing to scroll through blogs, but its another thing to pull something from a shelf and flip through it."

Canvas Clash will bring together six teams of artists in Love Park to compose pieces based on changes they believe would uplift Philadelphia.

On tap so far for special programming: Matthew Pruden's on-air séance; Jeb Lewis' "requiem" for North Philly's industrial history; and William "bilwa" Costa's improvised score using transistor radios, effects pedals and the gallery's natural resonance.

South Ossetia, much like the American South, will never rise again — it'll just lay there like a bloated, semi-literate inbred redneck. Now buy this CD.

On her brand new Acid Tongue, Lewis wraps her flaws up in pretty strings, belts them out from on high and hires some angelic backup singers to underscore the message.

At this stage, anything with the words "new" and "Marcus Strickland" attached are well worth checking out.

The song also informs us that the Beatles (among others) were "just a band." It's a bold proclamation for two white dudes from the outskirts of London whose instrumental prowess runs no further than a Mac and a microphone.

1 McGlinchey's | 2 Cantina Dos Segundos | 3 Root | 4 Fez | 5 The Piano Bar

The story of an all-girl Philly rock band, it hardily talks a blue-and-gray streak about Philly's '90s indie-rawk past — which Weiser's former band, the punky Mae Pang, was queen of.

Taking over the entire Troc, the evening will feature DJ Kiltboy and makeup artists from Terror Behind the Walls, who, for $10 and up, will make prom-goers look drop-dead gorgeous.

a group of dedicated climbers has transformed an old quarry in the small town of Birdsboro southeast of Reading and blazed about 80 routes from very beginner to oh-my-god hard.

Each piece of jewelry arrives with a based-on-true-events printed story that allows the new owner to play dress-up in another's deep and dark romantic past.

After a successful run of monthly shows in Fishtown, Strang's extravaganza of karaoke, improv comedy skits and rambunctious audience participation is relocating to Ly Michael's restaurant in Chinatown this Saturday.