The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Paris Hilton rather famously made a cameo in a recent John McCain campaign ad. So Funny or Die paid for her hilarious video response. It's the best thing we've ever seen her in! Way better than the sex video. (Via Debbie) Check out the Holy Grail of Buffy fandom, a never-before-seen three-minute demo reel for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Knitty: Weekly knitting circle at Vagabond (37 N 3rd), 6-8PM. Free Goes Down Better with Sugar: "Consuming Culture: A Story of Have and Have Nots," a night of theater, song, shadow puppetry and assorted antics presented by local artists Anna Whitehead and Michelle Posadas at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 7:30PM. Free Quizzo Mania: Get your Quizzo on at 12 Steps Down (831 Christian), 9PM; The Black Sheep (247......

When Phildelphia artist Erika Risko's work was exhibited at the 2008 Moore College of Art & Design's Senior Art show, it hung as the artist intended and as shown to the left. When it was included in the curated show "Early Look," which took place recently at the Longview Gallery in Washington, DC, it was also displayed in the same form. "Early Look" was an exhibition (curated by this writer) that showcased undergraduate art students......

Friday is for lovers. OPENING RECEPTION FOR MICHELLE SOSLAU: THREADS IN THE CURRENT Why just paint? Why just sculpt? Why just manipulate fabrics and paper to get your point across? Soslau embraces all of these and more in her attempt to engage her audience in the simple questions regarding a piece's origin. A quick look at some of her work reveals textures and palettes that drive entire conversations. Her work will be on display at......

When the clock inches towards five on a Friday, this Phillyist likes to say she'll be going down the shore. But many might say they are going "to the beach" or "to the ocean." According to Urban Dictionary, the term "down the shore" is used mostly by us Philly folks. Regardless, Phillyist believes that wherever you go this weekend—the beach, the shore, or the seaside—you should make it a great one. Mid-Summer Fest is in......

The Philadelphia Turkey lauded the Parkway-crossing antics of a local resident. Brave, or crazy? You decide. Philebrity wondered whether PostGreen was really meant for the Second Life real estate market. So that begs the question: does the sub-prime mortgage crisis exist in cyberlife? Katie at Based on Real Life checked out First Person Arts at L'Etage. Based on her writing, we expect to see her on stage at one of these soon. Jen, of Down......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. The world's oldest Bible is going online! All we want to know is, how are they going to jam those fragile old pages down the tubes of the internets without ruining them? (Via Jill) Sounds like NBC is doing a not-so-good job at selling their new programs to TV critics. (Via Jill) It's Comic-Con time! Cinematical has a preliminary post, then coverage of......

Drama Queen alerts us that Mayor Michael Nutter announced the opening of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, a "Frankenversion of the old Office of Arts and Culture (OAC)." You may recall that the OAC had been closed by former Mayor John Street four years ago, leaving the city as an embarrassing example of a major American city without a cultural affairs office.......

The high-speed car chase and wreck on Roosevelt Boulevard that led to the death of a 17-year-old boy appears to have come out of a dispute over a 14-month-old baby—a baby who died early yesterday morning from injuries sustained in the crash. Philadelphia photographer, founder of phillyskyline.com, and friend of Phillyist Brad Maule has sued The Colbert Report, and the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer for using his photographs without permission. He is seeking......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Screenings Under the Stars: Get ready for Dark Knight with a screening of Batman Begins at the Great Plaza on Penn’s Landing (Chestnut and Columbus Blvd), 6:30PM (movie at dusk). Free Laughter on the Banks Schedule: See the classic Annie Hall in the great outdoors on the Schuylkill Banks (25th and Walnut), 8PM Find Out Why You Can Watch Movies on the Banks: Screening of Free the River......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. There's nothing at the URL as of this writing, but PR people tell us that some time early this week, code.google.com/radiohead will host a clip of a video for "House Of Cards" created using two crazy technologies called Geometric Informatics and Velodyne Lidar. Not used in creating the video were cameras of any kind. Those crazy Radiohead peoples. Great moments in......

We're excited to note that HBO will be airing a documentary about a Philadelphia painter. The Art of Failure is a feature documentary "about the life of Chuck Connelly, a brilliant yet enigmatic painter who had great success as a young artist in the art boom of the 1980s but who has perpetuated a long downward spiral in his career due to ego, drugs, women, and alcohol. He now is increasingly fearful of his fate.......

Photo of Cody by Dan Bergeron Torontoist took a look at Regent Park, a low-income neighborhood whose soon-to-be-demolished buildings are being graced with huge wheatpastes of the area's displaced residents. (On that note, they also tried to find a legal middle ground for street art.)Phillyist curated their first art exhibition, and posted pictures from its opening.Gothamist was shocked when surveillance footage was released of a Brooklyn hospital's staffers repeatedly ignoring a patient—who had waited......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Want to win a trip to the San Diego Comic Con to meet the cast of Death Race, and maybe even appear in the DVD as a casualty of the race? Sure you do! Just click here and fill out the form to enter. (Via Jill) A look into Harvey Weinstein's recycle bin. Check out the very creepy red band trailer......

Photograph of one of the man-made waterfalls under the Brooklyn Bridge by Jake Dobkin Gothamist enjoyed watching New York City's latest big public art project--four multi-story man-made waterfalls--rise up in East River and the debate about whether it's art or folly (but they sure look pretty at night).Londonist handed out advice on how to queue for Wimbledon tickets, then embarked on a gruelling fact-finding tour of drinking-holes at the capital's main terminus rail stations.Seattlest......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Amazon.com has an exclusive preview of Beck's new album, Modern Guilt. The video is more of the lame experimental stuff Beck's been doing lately, but the music is pretty cool. PC Magazine picks the best websites for movie fans, and do a pretty good job of it; included are some of our favorites, like Rotten Tomatoes, Apple's movie......

Because we're big fans of student artwork, we told you about NEXUSselects when it first opened and we're now reminding you that it's about to close this coming Saturday. NEXUSselects is a juried competition for seniors graduating from the Philadelphia region and this exhibition includes work by painter Anton Carlone from the University of the Arts; photographer Kelsey Fain from Drexel University; photographer Colin Leaman from Tyler School of Art; painter Gerold Mooney from University......

In April we called on our readers to submit their photos for the inaugural Phillyist Framed photography contest and show. The people at Studio 34 Yoga, the Phillyist staff, and of course, the selected winners have been busy organizing the event and turning digital camera files into professionally-framed prints. Now, here's where you come in: we'd love to have our readers and their guests on hand to celebrate with us. Use any of the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Artists and Their Work: Studio performance of works in progress by 2008 nEW Artists Charles Anderson/Dancetheatrex, Eun Jung Gonzolez, Jeffrey Gunshol, Jamiil Kosoko/Performance, Olive Prince Dance, Gabrielle Revlock, and Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre at UArts Drake Theater (1512 Spruce), 6:30PM. Free Laughable: First installment of Laughter on the Banks! Summer Movie Series with Airplane! on Walnut Street Dock (25th and Walnut), 8PM. Free At Sea: The SEA Trio,......

We kept walking by the Comcast Center and seeing a giant test pattern in the lobby. This is what we were missing.......

Beginning July 1, 2008, entry to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) will be free to the public for the first time in its history. This super cool initiative was made possible by a generous gift from Glenn R. Fuhrman, who is an ICA Overseer as well as a contemporary art collector. "We are so grateful to Glenn Fuhrman for his vision and generosity, which will open the world of contemporary art to new......

Recently we were sad to report that Anne d'Harnoncourt, the highly respected director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art died unexpectedly. Since then, the city declared June 19, 2008 as a Day of Appreciation for Anne d'Harnoncourt, and on that day the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be open free to the public from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. On that same day, at 11:30 a.m. the City Council will issue a resolution honoring Anne......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Bordellos Are Good: Opening reception for “Peep Show,” featuring work from five interdisciplinary artists examining eroticism, set in a space resembling a 19th-century bordello at Airspace (4013 Chestnut), 6-10PM. Free Firk It: Get to the only Friday the Firkinteenth of 2008, featuring 13 or more firkins of cask conditioned ale, at the Grey Lodge Pub (6235 Frankford), 12PM- when the firkins run out. Free + cost of......

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We can't help but be aware that Philadelphia is a city that really pays attention to its always growing crop of art students, and there always seems to be terrific exhibitions where the focus is on student work, such as the one that we mentioned last week currently taking place in Northern Liberties' Projects Gallery. And yet another such exhibition is NEXUSselects, a juried competition for seniors graduating from the Philadelphia region. This exhibition "seeks......

We drove by Franklin Park on Saturday and were convinced we saw a giant sand sculpture, but we couldn't figure out what dinosaurs, a baseball, and a gym would all be doing on the same sculpture, so we chalked it up to our overactive imaginations. More videos after the jump!......

Time again for First Friday gallery openings and receptions, and time to get crawling from gallery to gallery for a sip of wine, an eyeful of new artwork, and hopefully the chance to add some good artwork to our collections. First Friday is hard to beat as a once-a-month must-do for art lovers, art collectors, artists, and even tourists. Starting in Northern Liberties, Projects Gallery finally opens their collaboration with curators and uber art bloggers......

Anne d'Harnoncourt, the highly respected director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a vibrant force as an arts activist and advocate for the arts in Philadelphia, died unexpectedly late Sunday night. In a prepared statement, David B. Brownlee, professor and chair of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania stated that "Philadelphia has lost one of the greatest cultural leaders in its entire history. Anne d'Harnoncourt transformed the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a......

We've all gotten cheap laughs out of cute, adorable kittens on the Internet, whether dressed in costume or pleading for nourishment, so it's about time we give back to the feline community. Leading the charge is City Kitties Rescue, a small group of pro-active volunteers who rescue stray cats and kittens in Philadelphia, foster them back to good health, and adopt them out to new homes. Tonight head over to Studio 34 in West Philadelphia......

Smile people: It's Friday! AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S GUANTANAMO CELL TOUR The champions of human rights are constructing a replica of the infamous cells at City Hall this weekend, available for examination or entrance by passersby. You can videotape a message to Bush, too. That must be one hell of an interesting video library. WHO: Anyone WHERE: City Hall's Dilworth Plaza,1400 JFK Boulevard (map) WHEN: From 1pm to 7pm HOW MUCH: Free! PENNYWISE AT THE FILLMORE It's......