With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

The TLA is getting a makeover. According to Live Nation: "When doors open to Todd Rundgren’s Philadelphia concert on April 27th, fans will notice a difference. Upon entering the venue, there will be fresh apples for hungry live music aficionados and a greeter to let them know about upcoming shows. On top of the significant renovations that the venue underwent last year, hardwood floors are being installed, the walls will be painted a deep red......

So yeah, there's times when you want to volunteer and get involved with people in a community, work with them towards common goals, be important in the life of a child. That is noble and good. However, there are also times when you can't bear to spend time with others, be it because your family at home is crazy, or the people you work with are sucking the life out of you, or you......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

We here at Phillyist love the holiday season as much as the next person. It always brings fond memories of great home cooked food, warm fireplaces and those wonderful family get-togethers where something always gets broken, someone always falls asleep really early, and someone else takes WAY too many pictures (Mom...). And while those things are what family and celebration are all about, this article delves into the more sordid and shady world of government......

Eschaton points towards news that Big Brother may have been paying more attention than any of us thought. dovate (via Philly Future) has a new plan for some old viaducts. Philadelphia Will Do let's us know that the smoking ban may go through...sort of. Citizen Mom has a question about rainbow vs. chocolate jimmies (and whether "rainbow jimmies" means what she thinks it means). Strangely, Phillyist was having a similar debate not too long ago.......

Whether it's true or not, Phillyist has named today an official slow news day. Many of our -ist brethren seem to agree. SFist: Anybody else surprised Katie Holmes hasn't popped that baby out yet? Austinist: One of the occupational hazards of being a performance poet is, apparently, getting fired from Apple Computers. LAist: Only in California... Seattlest: Umm... Is that a urinal? Gothamist: Exactly how a coyote was able to travel from Westchester County to......

Oh, Neil Stein, how the mighty have fallen. Neil Stein, former Philly restaurant tycoon, will be sentenced today following his guilty plea last Summer on filing false tax returns. The government is expected to request a sentence of 18-24 months in the pokey - Stein lucked out: the max is nine years. No word on the future of Stein's sole restaurant, Rouge. Despite Philadelphia's ever-rising violent crime rates, crime is down by 10% in......

National Geographic Traveler, the offshoot not to be confused with its big brother (you know, the one with the yellow border and the educational nudity), has declared Philadelphia its "Next Great City" in its October issue. Editor-in-chief Keith Bellows said, ""Philly has a little bit of an underdog sense of itself and it doesn't even realize how great it is." Keith, we promise you we'll get started on changing that. Say it with me, folks:......

We love those rare days when you reach into your pockets and find that $20 you misplaced a while ago. Better than that, though, are the days where you reach into your pocket and find a new Gothamist website. Parisist rounds out our whirlwind week of new sites, which included our own launch yesterday, along with Shanghaiist's launch twelve hours earlier. We mentioned that we're Shanghaiist's little brother, but as Parisist's big brother, we expect......

Well, we're new in town. We hope you like us. Really, we do. But if you don't, you can always move to Shanghai. They have an 'ist site, too. Shanghaiist opens today. Well, it already opened since "today" is actually 12 hours ago. I guess we're twins with Shanghaiist, with a 12-hour difference. How's that for excruciating labor? Since Shanghaiist is our big brother/sister/brister, we have no choice but to link it, and then......

We here at Phillyist learned that some TV execs were in our fair city this past weekend working on a top secret project. We weren't able to garner any further information --despite our wit and charm-- but our guess is it will involve thirty seconds of the Liberty Bell and the rest will be on an L.A. soundstage. And, speaking of soundstages, the only hit network show that takes place in (and has actually......