This weekend there are several cool dance events going down, most of them on the cheap. We were going to front-load (dance-load?) Frugal today, but then thought it might be better to devote a little more space to each. Besides, with all this slushiness, wouldn't you rather watch other people move than do so yourself? If you need a little something tomorrow afternoon to make you forget about said slush, consider heading over to the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: If the Opera’s Not Your Thing: Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (824 W. Lancaster Ave), 7PM. $9.25 Jeff Kessler: Jeff Kessler, Kyle Herring, and Sarah Marie White at Upstairs at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut), 7PM. $8 Feel Bad About Your Shoes: Fashion’s Environmental Footprint, a talk about the real cost of cheap clothing by Heather Iwanow at Ruth Auditorium/Nesbitt Hall......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Talking About Dancing: Shen Wei, artistic director of Shen Wei Dance Arts, will appear with Philadelphia artist Sebastienne Mundheim to discuss the creative process in dance and visual arts, sponsored by Dance/USA and the Kimmel Center (260 S. Broad, Rendell Room on the First Tier), 6:30-8PM. Free (You can check out the non-Frugal Shen Wei Dance Arts performance at the Kimmel February 15-17) Further Afield: Jersey Justice, a......

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),......

Wednesday The Opera Company of Philadelphia finishes its run of Verdi's timeless and tragic Rigoletto. The Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Sts); 7:30 PM; $7-$205 Acclaimed concert pianist and teacher Seymour Lipkin gives a solo recital of Bach, Brahms, and Debussy presented by the Philadephia Chamber Music Society. American Philosophical Society (427 Chestnut Street); 8 PM; $25 Thursday The Slought Foundation presents Vincent Royer and Philadelphia-based ensemble Noamnesia in an evening of music by......

Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and Philly dude Andrew Lipke put out his first album, The Way Home..., on Drexel University's student-run record label, MAD Dragon Records, back in February. (The disc was produced by Emmy Award-winning composer and Drexel Professor Jim Klein, so it's got Drexel all over it.) We've been listening to it recently, and we rather like it. It's mighty entertaining, catchy indie alterna-pop with lovely harmonies and an occasional touch of almost orchestral-sounding......

Wow! Did this creep up on anybody else? We were thinking this was still a ways off, and then all of the sudden the website is live, the schedule is up, and tickets go on sale TODAY (although as of this writing, the links for purchasing don't seem to be live yet online)! (UPDATE: Online ticketing now appears to be up and running.) We haven't had a chance to look over this year's list of......

This suburban Phillyist used to work in the city, and commuted daily into Center City via SEPTA from Paoli. Imagine our surprise one day when, blearily staring out the window as the suburban landscape rushed by, we saw a tiny cemetery and historical marker mere feet away from the train tracks. Not quite convinced that we'd hallucinated the stone fence-enclosed minuscule graveyard, we made it our mission over the next few weeks to figure out......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Rawkus Comedy Night: Blake Wexler at Milkboy Coffee (2 E. Lancaster Ave.) at 9PM. $10 John Francis: John Francis & BC Camplight at The Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd Street) at 10:30 PM. $10 SATURDAY Joshua Heard Park: Local singer/songwriter Joshua Heard Park plays the World Cafe (3025 Walnut Street) at 9PM. $8 Matthew Izzo Presents: Stockholm Released, A Holiday Fashion Show at The Khyber (56 S.......

...but these artists are willing to put in the time to paint Philly's beautiful streets. Photo by author at the intersection of 36th Street, Lancaster Ave, and Race Street, October 22, 2006.......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Elizabeth Kostova: Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian, will be reading at the Rosenbach (2008 Delancey) - this Phillyist's all-time favorite museum - at 6PM. Free, but with RSVP requested. Pete and J: Pete and J with Josh Komorowski at Milk Boy (2 Lancaster Ave) at 8:30 PM. $10 Gnome Mans Land: Gnome Mans Land, Boys On Trial, Agent Moosehead & Owlan. 9PM at The Fire (412 W.......

Kufie: Local hip hop artist, Kufie plays Milkboy Coffee in Ardmore (2 E. Lancaster Ave) at 8PM. $6 The Gathering: The Gathering is a monthly event with "DJs Ambush, Fatcat, Deuce, Double E, Skeme Richards, and Nex Millen spin Hiphop, breaks, and funk all night, and there are open cyphers, a tag wall, and a featured performance and graffiti panel each month." 10PM - 2AM at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street). Free The Out......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Friday Acoustic Philly: An evening of acoustic music (and puppets) from a variety of acts, courtesy of Acoustic Philly at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street). 7:30 PM - 1AM. $5 bowerbird presents: Normal Love, Snacks & Drums Like Machineguns, Clown Food & Mincemeat or Tenspeed at Lava (4134 Lancaster Ave) 8PM. $5 Kill Your Idols: Robert Drake is hosting a free midnight screening of the coming-soon-to-DVD post-punk......

Some of you may have noticed that Phillyist has a strange fondness for zombies, so it should come as no surprise that we let out a squeal of delight loud enough to raise the dead when we discovered that "Thing a Week" musician Jonathan Coulton - the artist behind "Re: Your Brains" (and, you know, some other songs) was coming to town. Coulton will be opening for Philly songster Jim Boggia at Milkboy Coffee......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Movie Monday at The Troc: He's a loner, Philly, a rebel. That's right, this week's Monday movie is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Local quiz master and blogger, Johnny Goodtimes, will be hosting a Quizzo match prior to the screening. Doors open at 6, the show starts 8ish and you must be 21+ to attend. The Troc is located at 1003 Arch Street. $3 admissions is applicable towards food......

Fun around town, for $10 or less Three Stooges: The PDR Movie Night presents "A biography of the Three Stooges, in which their careers and rise to fame is shown throughout [sic] the eyes of their leader, Moe" at Jefferson Square Park (4th & Washington Avenue) at 8:30 PM. Free Pennypack Park Festival: Springsteen tribute band BSTREET BAND at Pennypack Park from 7 - 9:30 PM. Free Flow of the Underground: Stellarscope, The Colorfield Theory,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Free Screenings Under the Stars: Commerce Bank presents a free screening of the John Waters musical Cry Baby - which will be preceded by a Drag King/Johnny Depp lookalike contest. The contest begins at 7:30, and the movie at dusk. (When we went to Jaws last week, "dusk" proved to be approximately 8:45.) Maggi, Pierce & EJ: Philadelphia trio Maggi, Pierce & EJ (see Phillyist's interview with them......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY: The Northbound Band: Philly's The Northbound Band play The Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd Street) at 10:30 PM. $8 Phillly Songwriters Project: The Philadelphia Songwriters Project presents Tania Alexandra, Ron Chelsvig, Karen Gross & Brooke Fox at Milkboy Coffee (2 E. Lancaster Ave). Show begins at 8:30. Tickets are $10 - $12 (yes, we know it's $2 over the $10 mark - but come on - what's......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Philadelphia Orchestra: The Orchestra plays a free show at Villanova University (Lancaster Ave. (US Rt. 30) & Ithan Ave.) as part of their FREE Neighborhood Concert Series. 7PM Open Mic at the Fire: A free night of "Philadelphia's Most Talented Artists," at The Fire (412 W. Girard). Sign-ups start at 8PM. (21+) Playlist Philadelphia: "Playlist invites you to bring your iPod or MP3 player and share your best......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Tell-Tale Heart: Grover Silcox performs Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart at Eastern State Pen (2124 Fairmount Ave). 5:30PM $10. Opera on the Square: There's almost always music going on in Rittenhouse Square - but rarely is it opera. Tonight as part of the ongoing "America's Birthday" celebrations, you can enjoy an open air performance of arias from 6:30-8:30 PM in the park. Music at Milkboy: Kyle Justin and......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Make It a Film Night: Free movies at Headhouse (2nd and Lombard) every Wednesday night all summer long. This week, it's The Pink Panther (Peter Sellers, not Steve Martin). The movie starts at 8PM, giveaways by local radio station B101 begin at 7. Freshout Media Presents!: John Dutton Trio, Elipsis, The Boats and Portable Folk Band at The M-Room (15 W Girard Ave). Bags of Seeds (yeah -......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY: An Evening with Billy Plympton: Awesome animator Bill Plympton will be onhand to screen his work at the Franklin Institute (222 North 20th Street) as part of The Franklin Institute Animation Festival. Tickets are $8, and this event is at 8PM. (The Plympton show is being listed as appropriate for ages 10 and up.) In the Franklin Institute's Stearns Auditorium. MilkBattle '06: Four high school bands battle......

Are you as excited about the upcoming 15th Philadelphia Film Festival as Phillyist is?! We don't really see how you could be, but okay. Anyway, if you just can't wait to know this year's line-up (we mean besides the Danger After Dark program; you already know that, thanks to us), and/or you're desperate to know more about how the films were selected and which of them are going to be really good, you should show......

Mike Judge once gave the world Beavis and Butthead; now, along with Don Hertzfeldt, he's presenting The Animation Show; a collection of animated short films from all over the world. The Animation Show has 3 stops in the Philadelphia area this week: Wednesday in Bryn Mawr, Thrusday in Ambler, and tonight in Doylestown. Our experience as that shorts in these festivals can range anywhere from hysterically funny to heartbreakingly moving to just plain weird. (Check......