Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY SURFGARAGEPUNKROCKNROLL!!! Whoo!: Positively Sick on South Street with Flag of Democracy, The Ripovs!, Voodoo Reef, and cheap drinks at Tritone (1508 South), 9PM. $6 Funstival: First annual Mascher Space Coop Funstival, featuring The Hessians, Gemini Wolf, Umlaut, The Mural and the Mint, and dance performances by New Extreme Dance Explosions Awesomes, PIMA group, M.I.A., ChristinaZani/DevynnEmory /Sam Miller, Megan Bridge, and MAPcollective at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 Frankford), 8PM.......

It just may be that this particular Phillyist is going to the sold out Jimmy Eat World show in Atlantic City tonight. And it just may be that you aren't. Ha! THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC PRESENTS: HAIRSPRAY If you like musical theater, you know Hairspray. This weekend, you can catch a production over at the Academy of Music, presented by their program entitled Broadway at the Academy. It's a real show, so you'll have to......

Despite their name, NYC four-piece Vampire Weekend (MySpace) is not a shoe-gazing, emo goth band. In fact, their self-titled debut LP, just released at the end of last month, is perhaps best described as "sunny" - the very antithesis of a vampire's idea of a good weekend. This band, beloved of many blogs (including us), performs bouncy, funny, clever, retro indie/punk/pop/New Wave songs about love. Their music is so fun it feels like there has......

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2008 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know! 10. Cross – Justice While this debut album by French duo Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay leans heavily on the discography of fellow Parisians, Daft Punk, it breaks out on its own......

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Thursday post only collects the latest announcements, so definitely check the Tuesday post for any you may have missed. Teapacks - Afro Beat Jewish Punk The Troc Sun, 10/28/07, 7PM $30-$70 On sale: Today, 12PM, Ticketmaster VHS or Beta House of Blues Atlantic City Sat, 11/17/07, 8:30PM $17 On sale: Fri, 10AM, Ticketmaster An Evening with Stevie......

Saturdays are for shopping. There's something about a slow Saturday afternoon that lends itself to kissing discretionary income goodbye. This weekend, you can shop 'til your wallet cries mercy, all while supporting your local DIY concert promoters, R5 productions. The Punk Rock Flea Market takes over the Starlight Ballroom from 10 to 5, which gives you plenty of time to soak up someone else's air conditioning, buy random stuff, and eat vegan cookies. View the......

Bands I Caught: The Bad News Bats, The Northern Liberties, The Mountain High, The Lowbudgets Venue: Millcreek Tavern Granted, I have virgin ears for this kind of thing. But for me, last night was hard. And not hard in that "I could hardly keep my eyes open" sort of way or that "struggling to find words to describe it" sort of way. Not difficult. Just hard. My Millcreek experience was the antithesis of Monday night.......

Bands I Caught: Barking Spiders, Bear is Driving, Normal Love, Venue: The Avant Gentleman’s Lodge The Avant Gentleman’s Lodge is located just around the corner from the 40th St. El stop, which makes me love it. As does the tiny factory feel, the hand-painted wooden bench sitting in the lot beside the old ivory car I’d knock an old lady over to drive, the twinkling Christmas lights, the giant paper maiche phoenix dangling from the......

You may not have heard of G.B.H. We hadn't heard of them before we got a copy of their recently released box set, Race Against Time: The Complete Clay Recordings. But they're a pretty popular band in England. And they're now one of our favorites. Of course, G.B.H. is a British punk metal band, and when we heard that was their genre, we suspected we would like them quite a bit. British? Punk? Metal? That's......

Editor's Note: Phillyist has seen and enjoyed Puppet Karaoke before, but we thought it was time to revisit and reiterate. Also, you know how we love a good post about faux penises... You haven't lived until you've seen a puppet named Fruitwa sing "Touch me in the morning." Seriously. And things really aren't right until you've chair-danced while a paper bag puppet resembling Vincent Price belts out "Timewarp." We saw all of that and more......

Tired of sifting through that same-old same-old at your local shops and malls? Get your holiday shopping done tomorrow, flea-market style. R5 Productions is hosting the holiday edition of its Punk Rock Flea Market at the Starlight Ballroom. Almost 100 tables will be filled with new and used fare, from wearable art by local artists to used vinyl and CDs. We find ourselves especially interested in table 56, which promises to be full of "kickass......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Looking for a fun board game either for yourself or a friend/relative? Matthew Baldwin of Defective Yeti near-fame is here to help you with his annual Good Gift Games Guide - always a good time. (Via) Folks have been getting serious about RPS lately, but that's nothing compared to how serious they used to be. (Via) Huh. Download Punk sounds cool. It's another......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Hot Wheels!: Secret Cinema presents Hot Wheels! Short Films About Hot Rods, Slot Cars, Skateboards at Moore College of Art & Design (20th & Race Streets) at 8PM. $6 Turkish Film Festival: Thursday, November 16 – Saturday, November 18 is the Turkish Film Festival at iHouse (3701 Chestnut Street). Tickets are $7 per film. Today's offering, Istanbul Tales (Anlat Istanbul), begins at 7PM. SATURDAY The A-Sides: The......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

...Poop: People bronze their babies' poop? Seriously? (Via The Superficial.) ...Talent: This is implying that you think Jessica Simpson can sing at all. (Via What Would Tyler Durden Do?) ...Punk'd: Poor Bruce Willis. First his ex marries a man-child, and then his pal does what the man-child is famous for. (Via New York Daily News.) ...Aging: Poor Mick Jagger. It can't feel good to know that Keith Richards will most certainly outlive you by......

If you read Phillyist's daily Frugal Fun Alerts, you'll have seen the name R5 Productions. That's because this Indie show promotion agency puts on several multi-band shows a week (oft-times all-ages) - many of which fall below the coveted $10 frugal cut-off mark. To help off-set show expenses, they host a biannual Punk Rock Flea Market, and the next one is this Saturday at the Starlight Ballroom (9th and Spring Garden). Worried that, like......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Touchy-Feely Music: R5 Productions is using words like "haunt" (Edith Frost), "heartfelt" (Richard Buckner), "brooding" & "mysterious" (Zincs) to describe their line-up for tonight's all ages show at The First Unitarian Church (22nd & Chestnut). Do they know the way to our singer-songwriter lovin' heart or what?  8PM.  $10 OH YEAH!: Metal, '80s, Punk, Pop, Emo and $2 drink specials at Club 218 (218 South Street). (21+) Philly......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Movies of the Heart:Secret Cinema is teaming up with the Franklin Institute for their "51 Hours of the Heart Marathon" this weekend, and will be presenting love-inspired features in the Stearns Auditorium at the Institute. (222 N. 20th Street). Friday night's double-feature is The Bride of Frankenstein & This is My Love. Saturday night: the Reels of Romance collection of shorts. Each evening of films will only cost......

Okay, it's hard to say this, but we've been meaning to for a while, and now's the time: Phillyist doesn't think you're punk enough. There, it's out, and we feel better for it. Whew. Anyway, luckily the International House is offering you a great chance to educate yourself. Tonight and tomorrow night they're screening a double feature of documentaries on two legendary punk rock bands. The films are The Fall: The Wonderful, Frightening World......

Frugal in Philly is a weekly celebration of all things Philly that are fun, frugal (costing $10 or less), or free! Stop here each week to see what Philly's got to offer for those of us who haven't quite mastered the art of becoming Independently Wealthy (although believe us, we're trying). Featured Pick of the Week: Movie Monday's at the Troc Ah, the Trocadero - is there anything it can't do? It's a burlesque house,......

It's not that we don't like watching Allen Iverson play. The guy is an absolute warrior - wants to play hurt, wants to play when the Sixers are up, wants to play when the game's close, wants to play when they're getting hammered. Time and time again, he gets knocked to the court, and you just wait for him not to get up, because he's not the burliest guard in the league, after all, but......

Frugal in Philly is a weekly celebration of all things Philly that are fun, frugal (costing $10 or less) or free! Stop here each week to see what Philly's got to offer for those of us who haven't quite mastered the art of becoming Independently Wealthy (although believe me, we're trying). Featured Pick of the Week: Punk Rock Double Feature at International House: On Saturday, August 27th, IHouse is offering two counter-culture classics for the......

The premise of ABC's new series, Brat Camp, reads like a bad episode of Dr. Phil: Nine disturbed teenagers are forced to attend a 60-day wilderness school. In Wednesday night's premiere episode, we were introduced to the troublemakers and informed of the issues that led to their destructive behavior, as we watched them break down on a ten-mile hike. Unfortunately, some of the serious topics that are addressed on Brat Camp are overshadowed by the......