Let it be said, first, that I am glad this little drama exists and look forward to seeing more. Mite We? is a testament to community theatre's ability to make art that directly confronts local issues. In it, members of the Puppet Uprising theatre group attempted to confront white flight, gentrification, and general liberal angst right here in West Philly to adults and children of all races in a span of 90 minutes using puppets.......

Although The Golden Compass is being compared to the Narnia Chronicles in some of the ads, the series that the book it's based on is a part of - Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy - is really the anti-Narnia: equal but exactly opposite to C.S. Lewis' saga of Christian allegory. Some people are saying that The Golden Compass is anti-Catholic - and they're right. The movie doesn't emphasize it as much as the book......

Let's get all the holiday news out of the way first: the Inquirer has coverage of the 88th annual Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade, which mainly focuses on the great weather. They greet Black Friday by reminding us of the many toy recalls, and by pointing out that there could be lots of great deals to be had out there due to a yearlong sales slump and tons of extra inventory. Now that the Mayoral......

Haverford Township Commissioner Fred Moran went on trial yesterday for "his alleged attempt to extort $500,000 from the developers of the Haverford State Hospital site in exchange for granting them zoning approval." Thanks in part to the influence of Betty Thompkins, a microscopist in Albert Einstein Medical Center's pathology department and one-time U. Penn researcher, Central High School "will be the first high school in the nation to receive the Phenom, a $72,000 tabletop electron......

It didn’t take much of a listen to gauge the pulse of the WIP callers after the Eagles 17-7 victory over the hapless Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Apparently, it isn’t enough to beat a donkey like the Dolphins by only ten points. Apparently, A.J. Feeley is a far superior choice to Donovan McNabb in the race to finish this misguided season behind Jamaal Jackson’s plus-size posterior. And apparently, if we hadn’t gotten rid of the......

The Attorney General's Office has accused Former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of giving his relatives fake jobs in order to pay them thousands in taxpayer dollars. A cheval-de-frise (an iron-tipped log that's placed in a riverbed along with many others in order to gore the hulls of enemy warships) was recently found at the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia. It's a relic from the mid-1770s, and......

Let’s get this out of the way early: The Eagles season is still, for all intents and purposes, OVER. To have a chance at the playoffs, they would have to win every game but one. And that is good because the game against the Patriots can already be put in the books. The team from New England is going to stomp the Eagles like Editor Jill running into a disgusting, yet otherwise harmless, cockroach. When......

Oh, man. Did you see that Rick Santorum is writing an opinion column for the Inquirer now? Ugh. In vaguely related news, John Street's post-mayoral employment, beginning in January, will be at Temple University as a professor of urban politics and policy. Governor Rendell, who himself is an adjunct at U. Penn, encouraged Street to make the move. Officials responding to a report of a fire at a home in Upper Darby yesterday discovered......

As the city said goodbye to officer Chuck Cassidy, the suspect in his killing was agreeing to extradition to Pennsylvania. There are yet more details available this morning on Tuesday's election results. First of all, not all of the elections are over yet - it may take 2 weeks to count all the ballots in the race between Jack Kelly and David Oh for a GOP at-large Council seat. But we do have the......

Hey, it's election day! And what with the Mayor's race being a foregone conclusion and everything, the interesting stuff is happening in the fight for two seats on the state Supreme Court. The search for John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of Officer Chuck Cassidy, is over. Police apprehended him at a homeless shelter in Miami at 7AM. They tracked him down after learning that a relative had bought a bus ticket to......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Nova (Tue, 8PM-9PM, PBS [WHYY & WLVT]) - This episode, entitled "Sputnik Declassified," is a look back at the early years of the space race, and includes segments on the launch of Sputnik, the failed attempt by the US to launch a satellite eight weeks later, and the contributions to the US space program by Wernher von Braun, former head of the Nazi rocket program. Secrets of......

The Inquirer discusses the Pennsylvania Supreme Court race and the possible repercussions on the Philadelphia area. The police now have a suspect in the death of police officer Chuck Cassidy - 21-year-old John Lewis of North Philadelphia - and have issued an arrest warrant for him. The search for him has intensified, and police and his relatives are asking him to turn himself in. Lewis is armed and dangerous; click through for a description......

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......

The Philadelphia Marathon is fast approaching (ha!), and those fleet-footed folks are looking for volunteers to help support the thousands of athletes who will converge upon the Art Museum on November 18. Tasks range from stuffing runner bags two weeks out to distributing blankets and Gatorade on race day. You can sign up for a specific job or offer your services as a general volunteer to be dispatched where you're needed most. You can also......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Here is a cake that you might not want to make for Timmy's 6th birthday party. But for the 40th birthday party of that creepy guy who works at the comic book store, absolutely. (Via) Hewlett-Packard is licensing a medical patch, designed based on their inkjet technology, with up to 90,000 microscopic needles per square inch, microprocessors, and a thermal unit.......

For our parents, it was the assassination of JFK. Ask any of them and they can remember exactly what they were doing at the time they found out JFK had been killed. I never understood that until September 11, 2001. Our generation can remember it like it was yesterday. For us, that moment, frozen in time, is and will always be 9/11. Back then I was in community journalism at a small paper in Bristol,......

Sure, you can wander through art gallery after art gallery tonight. The same places you always go, with the same cheap wine you always drink. Or, you can take advantage of the fact that there's always a First Friday during the Live Arts and Fringe Festivals, and there are plenty of free or pay-what-you-can PLAF events you can hit tonight and for the next week. A few that we think sound interesting: Sonic Dances A......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Inside Paris or Dans Paris - The story of a man who is left suicidal and depressed after his marriage breaks up. He goes back home to live with his divorced dad and his younger brother. Although they try to cheer him up, the only thing that actually makes him happier is a visit from his distant mother. Eventually, of course, he finds something to live......

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......

Rendell is now supporting the idea, spearheaded by outgoing Philadelphia School Reform Commission Chairman James Nevels, of trying to bring a major league soccer franchise to the city of Chester. While the court battle still rages over whether SEPTA will be able to eliminate transfers or not, Rendell and Fumo announced Tuesday that all seventh-through-12th graders who live more than 1 1/2 miles from their schools will ride for free with a new weekly transit......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Hey there, readers! I'm back liveblogging the second day of the First Annual BlogPhiladelphia "unconference." This post will be constantly updating throughout the day, so it's going to stay at the top of the Phillyist main index. But be sure to scroll down for the rest of our regular content, and see full liveblog after the jump! (Meanwhile, forgive us any resulting funny HTML, folks. We're fixing mistakes as soon as we find them.)......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

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......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Curious about that new Pepsi Summer Mix you've seen in the stores? Well, don't try it for yourself, for God's sake! Apropos of Something is here to try it for you, and report back just how awful it really is! In this case... it's apparently actually not really that awful. So maybe you should try it after all.......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

Can't get enough of those Butterscotch Krimpets? Lucky you: Tastykake is building a new facility at the Navy Yard! In less pleasant news, Philly's death count since January 1 is now 140. That. Is. Terrifying. Planning on taking a fun vacation this summer? If you book before May 31, Southwest wants to make sure you do it cheaper. They're celebrating three years in Philly, and we need an excuse to travel. In case you......

Proofreading Philly tries to capture typos, wordos, and all other kinds of grammatical mistakes that we see around the city. But we need your help! Email photos to us from your computer or your phone, and show the city that you care about good grammar. Reader Nick from Pro Cycling Tour (the company that organizes the Philly bike race) writes: Love your site, now I always keep an eye out for the things that make......

The Inquirer says last night's fifth, and next to last, televised mayoral candidate debate was pretty much boring and pointless. The only interesting bit was when all the other candidates violently disagreed with Nutter's "stop-and-frisk everybody" idea. But what, you ask, is up in the mayoral race these days, anyway? Well, according to political strategists and recent polls, Nutter's coming up strong (he's "running like Secretariat," in fact), and the race may now be......