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What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend Witnesses or Svjedoci Set in a small town in Croatia during the civil war of the early '90s, this film adaptation of the novel Plaster Sheep tells the story of the investigation into the murder of a Serbian smuggler and loan shark. The story is told from multiple perspectives and only slowly does the reason for the murder become clear. Sounds interesting, and the majority of......

D'oh! We up and forgot to celebrate Pennsylvania Day yesterday! While we were forgetting, Pennsylvania was earning the national average grade of B-minus in the Pew Center on the States scorecard on the effectiveness of state government, which just happened to get released yesterday. PA "was praised for creating a plan to respond to its alarming backlog of bridges in need of repairs and furnishing meaningful information about programs funded with state money." Meanwhile,......

Wednesday is named after the Germanic god Woden – god of gods in the Anglo Saxon pantheon, who was swallowed up by generations of cheeky Christian settlers who gradually morphed his religious stature into that of a folkloric king for the sake of proselytizing those who once believed in him. He is the basis for a primary character in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE LUNAR ECLIPSE EVENT We wanted to toss......

Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of police shootings in the country. The Daily News takes a look at what's being done about it, and is pretty underwhelmed. Apparently "many of the officers involved in these shootings are back to their regular street beats, even though most incidents are still being investigated without a determination that the officers were justified in firing their weapons." Due to the fact that local schools had received recalled......

We'd like to start this post off with something we just read in a press release: "If Ben [Franklin] were alive today, we believe that he would be brokenhearted to see the abuses endured by the same birds whom he sought to honor," says Lettuce Lady Nicole Matthews. "With so many delicious meat alternatives available, there's never been a better time to go vegetarian." We quote it because PETA's scantily-clad Lettuce Ladies will be......

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend. Ira & Abby - Ira is a brilliant, neurotic Jew with tons of "issues" (hmm... where have we heard of that character before?), and Abby is a free spirit who likes to solve her friends' problems. They meet, fall in love, meet each other's parents, and decide to get married, all in just a few hours. Then, of course, a series of wacky shenanigans make them......

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......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Becoming Jane - English majors around the world are either cringing or jumping for joy over this historical drama about the personal life of Jane Austen, which heavily influenced her work. Normally, this Phillyist would be rolling his eyes and thinking of any and every excuse imaginable to avoid seeing this movie, but if push comes to shove, he might suffer through it. After all, Anne......

As we mentioned a while back, King Tut is coming to town this weekend! Well, okay, maybe not the King himself, but a bunch of his coolest stuff will be on display at The Franklin Institute. Now that it's become clear that Tom Knox is doing exceedingly well, and has a great deal of money, a bill has been introduced to temporarily cancel the campaign contribution limits in order to even things out a......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Puppet Karaoke: Karaoke, puppet style. At the M-Room (15 W. Girard). $5 Street Movies! Scribe Video Center presents a free screening of Slip of the Tongue and the documentary Youth & The Houston Center: Growing Up Together. 8:30 PM at the Houston Community Center (2029 South 8th Street). Movie on Penn's Landing: Commerce bank presents a ET, which will be preceded by a traveling space show from......

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend. Lower City (Cidade Baixa) - Two best friends meet a beautiful stripper/prostitute and a complex romantic triangle forms as all three try to find a way to survive on the gritty streets of Salvador de Bahia's "lower city." Sergio Machado's directorial debut, this one's supposed to be intense and sensual. Could be fun! Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Most Likely to Rule: Scoop -......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Movies in the Park: Free screening of Way Out West in Clark Park (43rd Street & Baltimore Avenue) 9PM. The Free & Concious Concert: The Cutbacks, Stiff Middle Finger, Son of Nun, Brain Drain & Cypher:Dissident are playing The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street) at 6PM. Presented for free by Philly Red and Anarchist Action Network (RAAN) . Animation at The Franklin Institute: As part of their ongoing......

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......

Websites all over the internet have been posting the details of the deal signed Wednesday to create Philly's city-wide Wi-Fi hotspot, but we like the article by the Daily News the best because it opens this way: Breaking into song, Mayor Street said yesterday that a Philadelphian armed with a computer linked to the Internet will have "the whole world in his hands."Oh, that Street. What a fun-loving fellow. Anyways, the hard facts are......

Try not to panic - but the dreaded pink, red and doily-clad holiday, St. Valentine's, is only a week away. If you're on the lookout for something to do other than you traditional dinner and a movie, Philly's got some less-than-ordinary Valentine themed attractions going on. (And to our single brethren, these events are also singles friendly): Q-Licious in the Park: Spiral Q Puppet Theatre will be bringing Cupid and their giant puppets to Love......

Dear Benjamin Franklin: Happy belated birthday! We here at Phillyist feel a special bond with you. And it’s not just because the city smacks of you, or because we see your impersonators everywhere, or even because of what our university affiliations may or may not be. You see, Ben, it’s because of your cheekiness. We’re bloggers. We dig it. It sure took a cheeky bastard to say “Beer is living proof that God loves us......

The Franklin Institute has announced that it will remain open on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24. Now, the whole museum won't be open, but Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibit will be, as will the Tuttleman IMAX Theater for screenings of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which opens on Nov. 23 nationwide. Obviously, demand must have been high for this move. After all, the only thing I like more than turkey is Harry Potter.......

The questions are always the same when someone asks about the new exhibit at The Franklin Institute - Will I be grossed out? Is it gory? Body Worlds is causing a stir and people are wondering about it. The answers to those questions, by the way, are no and no. Body Worlds is attracting a diverse crowd - people interested in the exhibit as art, those who are vaguely morbid, and many who are simply......

The Franklin Institute wants to know what you think about their IMAX films and rather than hound you on the street for change and your thoughts on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they're going to let you in for free. The Franklin Institute will show a movie each night at 8:15 pm from Monday, September 12 to Thursday September 15. The only requirements: you have to make a reservation (by calling 215-448-1231 from 9 am......