Results tagged “library”

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Librarians like to stir up a ruckus when they can: The Newbury and Caldecott Medals were awarded this morning at the American Library Association’s Mid-Winter meeting down at the Convention Center, and the choices are, to put it mildly, “bold.” Most of us remember elementary school reading lists filled with past Newbury winners (The Westing Game was our favorite), and the Caldecott denotes excellence in what are called picture books, which are basically what you read before elementary school—think Where the Wild Things Are. The Newbury this year went to Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, which is odd only in that it is a collection of monologues with historical info thrown in between for good measure. But the bigger surprise, at least to those not in the know, was the Caldecott, which went to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a story of an orphan living in a train station, written and illustrated by Brian Selznick. The book is known to librarians, though, and their raucous applause at the announcement came because, as one noted, “the librarians knew the works well - and approved of them highly.” Why the surprise? Well, Invention, which Selznick wrote over 10 years, is a 500-page book. Yes, you read that right. No Knuffle Bunny here. The format is also odd in that it is “short and fat” as opposed to the oversized, thin picture books most of us are used to seeing. One librarian noted that shelving it is going to be a nightmare. Ah, we love a good scandal! (P.S. There were a bunch of other awards presented too—but maybe none as “bold.”)

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

You wouldn't know it from looking at me, or from looking at Ross, but this Phillyist has always had a thing for bad boys. Somewhere near the top of my list of dirty, sexy, hunky sits Anthony Bourdain. Sure, he's got a history of substance abuse, smokes like a chimney, is far too fond of fried foods, and, oh yeah, is old enough to be my father. But I'd run off on a culinary adventure...

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

If you were a cool girl, you had a crush on a New Kid. If you were a nerd girl, you had a crush on a graphic artist. Phillyist fell (who are we kidding, falls) into the latter category with a decidedly loud thud. So it is with the drooling affect of an oversexed pre-adolescent that we greet the news that Adrian Tomine, our very first comics crush, will be reading tonight at the Free...

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you.

Philadelphia area native Alice Sebold's books tackle some pretty hefty topics. Her memoir, Lucky, confronts the rape she experienced as a freshman in college. Her first novel, The Lovely Bones, is told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered. She narrates the story from heaven, watching as her family deals with her death. Sebold's novel may have been a hit at a time when chick lit ruled the shelves, but brightly colored covers were about the only thing Sebold's books had in common with many of her female counterparts.

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you.

Tonight, after happy hour and before whatever else you're doing, spend some time with Michael Palin. He's the guy in the video above who's not John Cleese, and he's one of the funniest actors from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment.

UPDATE: Philly Future posted a pretty comprehensive list of livebloggers from Day 1. We want you to read Phillyist's coverage, of course, but you should check out some of the other sites, too.

Starting tonight, have a fling in Fairmount. From Thursday through Sunday the neighborhood is a francophile's delight, with activities scheduled each evening in honor of Bastille Day. This Phillyist will be starting the party tonight with the Fairmount French Fling Bar Crawl, which begins at 7 at Aspen. We're sure by the time we get to the seventh and last bar, we'll remember all of our high school French, or at least the important phrases,...

If you make it through the day without melting into the asphalt, you'll be able to catch the first night of the IFC Free Film Fest at the Schuylkill Banks. Offering three nights of free entertainment, the Fest includes Raising Arizona (tonight), The Princess Bride (Wednesday), and last but certainly not least, Napoleon Dynamite (Thursday).

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you.

Phillyist has a confession to make: We have never made it through James Joyce's Ulysses. Not even a little. We've tried. Oh, how we've tried. But though we've failed more times than we'd like to admit, we console ourselves that those with better minds have thrown their hands up in disgust and screamed, "Okay I get it! It's the *&%*#$ Odyssey! Jesus, at least Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was under 200 pages!"

us to write two papers on our historical figure of choice. I wasn't cheating the system or anything.)

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to!

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week.