Happy birthday Andy Warhol! SUMMER TWILIGHT TOURS AT EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY Yes, an abandoned prison is scary any time of day or night. But the folks over at Eastern State Penitentiary are hoping a Twilight Tour will provide the perfect ambiance for an evening behind bars. The "Left Behind" tour features replicas of the minutiae that once littered the prison: photos, crafts and other paraphernalia that prisoners and guards would have used during the prison's......

Happy Portugal Day! ANDRE DUBUS III: THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS We had to list this reading/signing because we had heard on NPR that the novel is about "terrorists and strippers." The author himself is most notable for coming down with a severe case of fame after Oprah implored her minions to read The House of Sand and Fog and they did so, in rabid droves. According to the Library's web site, a group of......

Some of you have work tomorrow. Others do not. To the former, our condolences. To the latter, our congratulations. TWO STAGES AT DOC WATSON'S This is one of our more basic but to-the-point event names. Yes, there will be two stages rocking tonight over at Doc Watson's Pub. We Are Castles, Domi, The Orange, Conversation with Friends, Common Crave and Bodega will be playing. Also, enjoy $3 Magic Hat #9 and a late-night Happy Hour......

The Urban Dictionary has no shortage of definitions for the word "flaky". And this Phillyist has read them all. He feels painfully well-described by their variety and cold accuracy. JERRY ALTMAN: THE ART OF TV GUIDE The TV Guide has been updating housewives on the status of their favorite soft-core porn, er, we mean soap opera, for over 50 years. For half that time, Jerry Altman has played the role of Art Director, guiding the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Music of Regret: Artist Laurie Simmons introduces her The Music of Regret, a mini-musical in three acts, as part of the ICA Puppet Show, at the International House (3701 Chestnut), 7PM. $6 Thinking Is Hard: "Critical Thinking," a panel discussion of Philly’s One Film The Emperor of the Sun, at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 7PM. Free Drinking Is Not: Test your knowledge of The Emperor of......

Dear Mr. McNabb, My name is Stu Pidass, attorney and agent for Mr. William Hayes. I’m writing you today, on behalf of Mr. Hayes, for one reason and one reason only: to apologize. Mr. Hayes regrets that he cannot be the man to write this piece, but he has dispatched me in his stead because of three factors. First of all, he is physically incapable of admitting when he is wrong. Just ask his wife,......

Last Thursday's Happy Hour was fun. Lots and lots of fun. We loved meeting all of you who came. (If you didn't come, trust us: you were really missing out!) We also loved learning that some of you get just as hung up on manners as we do. Case in point: the discussion I had with several of you early in the evening about tipping during an open bar. General consensus: do it. Sure,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Robbin Hayward: Robbin Hayward with Anthea Caddy and Newton Armstrong at the Community Education Center (3500 Lancaster Ave), 8PM. $5-$10 Like Us After a Weeknight out Drinking: Slo and Shakey at Tritone (1508 South), 10PM. $5 Die Actor Die: Comedy show Die Actor Die featuring Pat Barker, Mike Berkowitz, Fred Siegel, Kate Bambi, Doogie Horner, Meg and Rob; hosted by Don Montrey at the Khyber (56 S 2nd),......

Ah, Turkey Day. The official kick-off of six weeks of too much eating, too much drinking, and probably a little too much carousing. If you're like Phillyist, part of this weekend will be devoted to making sure all the Thanksgiving fixings are squared away in the pantry (or else, trying to find someone who will feed you that day). In the rush of the holidays, though, it's easy to forget those that can't stock up......

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on......

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......

CNN has an article about a disturbing racist incident at Warwick High School in Lititz, PA. Just before midnight last night a speeding SUV crashed into a parked police patrol car on I-76 near the Conshohocken interchange. The highway was closed for five hours while the five injured people (including two troopers) were taken to the hospital and the wreckage was cleared. "KYW radio (1060 AM) reported that some trapped motorists fell asleep in......

This Phillyist started drinking coffee in college (we're just not all that precocious, what can we say). Those days, coffee consisted of a cuppa from the student center convenience store or, on good days, the spoils from a trip to Wawa. We're in danger of dating ourselves here, but a Starbucks didn't appear anywhere near campus until half-way through our tenure, and we didn't succumb to the green goddess's siren song with regularity until......

One of the more hilarious perks of writing for Phillyist is that we occasionally receive press releases and statements from overworked press flacks trying to make their musician clients look like the second coming of The Beatles. It's rare, however, that we get a press release that actually reduces us to helpless laughter, which is what happened when we got an email from Amy Winehouse's spokesperson announcing that Amy Winehouse was cancelling her US tour......

All the way from Glasgow, UK, The Twilight Sad (myspace) bring their brand of loud guitar rock to Johnny Brenda’s tonight. With tracks like ‘Walking For Two Hours’ and ‘Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed’ you’ll be taken down hallways hearing echoes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai (if either produced tracks with discernible lyrics). These four blokes combine effects pedals, tape loops from old films, guitar, bass, toy keyboards, saws and Voltron action......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Greek (Mon, 9PM-10PM, ABC Family) - So, what's the deal with the ABC Family channel, anyway? Their intention, as stated in the title of their network, would seem to be to broadcast programming that the entire family could enjoy. Why, then, do they persist in putting on shows like this one, which seem designed to be titillating and appeal to an older audience? Sure, it starts at......

...Actually, it's usually pretty good booze. Depending on where you're going, it could even be great booze. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Center City Sips (fostering Phillyist's alcoholism since the summer after we turned 21) will continue tomorrow in spite (or perhaps because?) of this little holiday better known as Independence Day. That's right: you can celebrate our nation's independence in the place where it all got started. By getting bombed for cheap. Ah how......

It's drawing close to the day when all Phillyists must decide what to do with a day off in the sweltering heat - the Fourth of July. Do we hang around the city, deal with the onslaught of tourists dressed up in their red, white and blue best to sit on the parkway and listen to Hall and Oates? Do we sit around drinking beer and grilling burgers and dogs? Do we venture into the......

There's nothing we like better than drinking. Wait, there's nothing we like better than shopping. Hold the phone. Tomorrow night, there's a party that combines both. At the Sailor Jerry flagship store from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, sip complimentary Sailor Jerry Rum cocktails and Triumph Brewing Company beers while browsing the brand's summer clothing line, which has been slashed by 30 to 50%. We secretly yearn for a few well-placed tattoos, but our......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Warning! This video may disturb and unsettle you! Also, don't be drinking anything when you watch it, or you could snarf. (Via Zoe) The Shatner Show is an art show consisting entirely of pieces based around the likeness of the man himself, William Shatner. Yes, the Shat has extended his domination to the art world now. That handsome devil. (Via) Word......

The Philly Orchestra is finally back in town. Hooray! Wednesday Soprano Maria Traub, also a French and Italian professor, comes to the Holy Trinity's Brown Bag Lunch series for a program of operatic favorites. Holy Trinity (Rittenhouse Square); 12:30 PM; FREE Wednesday, Thursday, Friday The Philadelphia Orchestra presents programs of Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky respectively. The Beethoven concert boasts a rather odd slogan of "9 symphonies in 90 minutes" and will feature one movement from......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

We all know the basic plot outline: it was prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father the king, and marry his mother, so he's taken away to be killed, but not actually killed. He's raised in another town but eventually returns to his homeland, where, unbeknownst to him at the time, the prophesy comes true. Now that you've had a refresher course on the plot, let's drink. Let's drink a whole lot. In fact, every......

What are you doing for the next few days? We are drinking, drinking, and oh, um, drinking. What better way to do that than while dancing to The Wailers? Though Bob Marley is no longer with us, The Wailers keep the torch burning by performing their popular hits, in addition to new pieces. New frontman Yvad has been described as bringing freshness and vitality to an already accomplished group, which includes original members Aston......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. It's a list, and one about Star Wars, even, so there's no way we could not post for you Star Wars: Top 20 Moments. And as it turns out, it's also quite a good list, with some really good selections. The only one we might quarrel with is number 7: Vader gets a new wardrobe. The scene where Anakin finally goes into the......

Tonight. 8 p.m. Damien Rice. Mann Music Center. Joygasm. The thing that grabbed us back in 2003 about Damien Rice's debut album, O, was the cello. Having played the instrument ourselves for eight years, we are a sucker for the cello. And then there was his voice. That haunting, lilting voice that expressed so much in one verse. What I am to you is not real What I am to you you do not......

We all know where the quote comes from, and with a show going up that's centered around music of the Vietnam era, it seemed appropriate enough. Now, on with the listings! Hair - Boobies! Onstage! May 26-June 17. Tickets online. Pirates of Penzance - The very model of a modern major general. June 1-17. Ticket reservations online. War Songs II: More Songs of the Vietnam Era - Because who doesn’t dig 60s-era protest music? May......

Last night's show at the Electric Factory highlighted two different kinds of punk. First up was Be Your Own Pet's sloppy, messy, disorganized punk. Lots of slamming and banging and screaming and talking, but not a lot of structure or melody or diversity. And not, sadly enough, much that was all that interesting. They're fun, but they don't have a lot of substance. Their lyrics are generally silly fluff about going on adventures in the......

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! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Filled with sentimental and emotional ballads, Mindy Smith's recent Philly show never seemed to get off the ground. Kicking her show off with "Out Loud," her new single off her second album, Long Island Shores, she seemed to be excited and energized. But with each subsequent song, the energy lessened, an awkwardness grew between Smith and the audience and her songs fell flat. After hearing the final song, "Come to Jesus," we finally realized......