Results tagged “thisphillyist”

Entering the empty stage, David Ford began to shake his maracas into the microphone. He stepped away and lowered the maracas, but, as if it was somehow coming from behind the scenes, the sound continued to echo. He then briefly vocalized into the mic and -- same as the maracas -- after the vocalization was over, it eerily continued. At this point, hushed murmurs throughout the crowd could be heard: "What is he doing?" "How is that happening?" What it took the audience a few minutes to understand was that he was looping each sound individually to create a rich texture of music to fill out the entire room with his first song of the night, "Go To Hell." It was truly a mark of high showmanship, but David Ford did it with such grace and understatedness that not only was it entertaining, it was also endearing. Throughout his entire performance, he commanded the stage while also performing with an air of self-consciousness and an honest-to-goodness "Gee shucks I'm so glad to be here" attitude. With his album already having been released in the UK to great success and recently having been released for digital download here in the States (available physically in April), this is a man who is headed swiftly up that daunting hill to stardom. His enthusiasm for performing shined through as he told the crowd that he was glad to be in Philadelphia: "the birthplace of the Constitution and Will Smith." more ›

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. more ›

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. more ›

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. more ›

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. more ›

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. more ›

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. more ›

The holidays kind of snuck up on us this year. Perhaps because Thanksgiving was so early. After Turkey Day was over, it was still too early to get into the Christmannakkanzaa spirit. (This Phillyist adheres to a strict "No Christmas music before December 1" rule.) And then we got caught up with other things, and we didn't really notice that, yep, we're in holiday season. It took Thursday night's WXPN Musicians On Call benefit concert... more ›

Go across the Walt Whitman Bridge and take the North-South Freeway to Route 55. Travel South on Route 55 for about 25 miles, and you'll find yourself in Vineland, New Jersey. (Insert wisecrack about Vineland's awesomely bad municipal website here.) Why would you go to Vineland? Well, at the moment, you probably wouldn't. But next summer, you might have a reason to. Paste Magazine is reporting that C3 Presents—the force behind Lollapalooza and the... more ›

Mike Doughty Ticket Giveaway
11/15/07-11/16/07 more ›

When a performer is a standard bearer and larger than life in his or her field, it's hard to escape knowing who that person is, even if you only have a passing interest in his or her art. This Phillyist isn't particularly interested in cinema or dramatic theater, for example, but still knows who Orson Welles and John Barrymore are, if only vaguely. Similarly, one cannot be familiar even in passing with modern dance and not have a clue about, and probably even an opinion on, Martha Graham. She, along with the likes of Isadora Duncan (you know, the one with the scarves) and Ruth St. Denis, is credited with laying the foundation for a dance revolution in America, and the world's been reaping the benefits ever since. more ›

This Phillyist would like to interrupt this wonderful Wednesday to remind you that Philadelphia’s NBA representative, the 76ers, will be starting their season tonight at 7 p.m. with a road game against the Toronto Raptors. The team is not expected to do too much this year. In fact, most people are picking them to finish last in their division, and Sports Illustrated even picked them to pull up the rear in the entire Eastern Conference. Then again, think about it for a second, and how could you NOT pick them for last in their division? Take the leap for a look at what the teams in the Atlantic Division were up to this off-season. more ›

If you ever look at our weekly theatre listings (and we hope you do!), you may have noticed that one local company has been conspicuously absent from the mix: the Philadelphia Theatre Company. They're starting their season off a little late this year so that the finishing touches can be made to their new home: the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Broad and Lombard Streets. more ›

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend. more ›

This Phillyist hearts Rilo Kiley. Jenny Lewis is our long-standing girl crush. So we're pumped for tonight, when they'll be at the Tower Theatre, touring after their new album, Under the Blacklight. more ›

This Phillyist is a Libra, a sign that is characterized by indecisiveness and the desire for nice things (Linda Goodman describes us as "pink, fluffy clouds"). It is with great rejoicing then that we greeted the news that Lush (purveyor of bath bombs the world over) on Walnut is a Libra too, and will be celebrating its first birthday in spa-ish style. They're offering goodies throughout the day, complimentary chair massages from 5-8 pm, and a goody bag if you RSVP. Giving out gifts at your own party. Now that's class! (And for anyone agonizing over birthday gift giving, Phillyist thinks the Think Pink bomb is divine). more ›

Warped Tour is the gift that keeps on giving, at least for this Phillyist. We got to hear some great bands there, and we're going to continue following some of them. One of those bands is Monty Are I. Monty rocked our socks off at Warped, and they'll be back tomorrow night at the Trocadero with Sum 41, Amber Pacific and Schoolyard Heroes. Monty's latest album, , is starting to pick up some buzz, thanks largely to the single "Between the Sheets," which you should be listening to right now. If you're not, hit play on the video above and check it out. So we love the song, and we think the whole album is pretty good, if a bit over-produced. We actually wish it didn't sound quite so clean. Monty won us over at Warped with a really raw, aggressive sound, and we're looking forward to more of that tomorrow night. more ›

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 several years post-diploma. But now we're hooked; Wawa just doesn't offer mistos. Starbucks' brew tends toward the bitter side, but we can't stay away. Is there crack in that there coffee? more ›

In the interest of full disclosure, we have to tell you that this particular Phillyist grew up in the Boston area, so this review hurts us more than you know. more ›

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: more ›

(a magazine which, admittedly, we hadn't heard of before receiving the email from Drexel), entitled "The Next Great American City? Reconsidering Philadelphia’s Future." Would we be interested? more ›

What's new and/or interesting at Philly theaters this weekend. more ›

and wouldn't let me out of the house until I admitted that, yeah, the dude was kind of funny. (After her thankfully brief Dane Cook obsession, Birbiglia was practically Carlin, I promise.) By which I mean: I know Mike Birbiglia. And Mike Birbiglia? Is hilarious. more ›

It's official. The No Duh of the Year Award goes to SEPTA. For a number of reasons, of course, but the one that got our goat this morning was decision to remove the malt liquor ads from two buses. According to the Inquirer, SEPTA officials have concluded that the giant, tacky Colt 45 ads plastering the buses might be a bad idea given the hold violence has on our city. To that we say, Obvs. more ›

This Phillyist has a special place in her heart for Kweller, whose last CD, specifically the song "My Apartment," got her through a break-up and two moves. We're a little sad he chose Brooklyn over Philly for his three-night stint, during which he'll play his three records in their entirety, one each night. more ›

Rachael Yamagata, singer/songwriter, is headed to the Johnny Brenda's tonight. If you can't make it tonight, you can see her on Tuesday, July 24th or Tuesday, July 31st. Yep, that's right - she is playing three times in Philly, a short residency of sorts. Yamagata is known for her dark, raspy alto voice and being highlighted on numerous TV shows and movies. Recently, she contributed a song to Mandy Moore's new CD, Wild Hope. On... more ›

Starting tonight, have a fling in Fairmount. From Thursday through Sunday the neighborhood is a francophile's delight, with activities scheduled each evening in honor of Bastille Day. This Phillyist will be starting the party tonight with the Fairmount French Fling Bar Crawl, which begins at 7 at Aspen. We're sure by the time we get to the seventh and last bar, we'll remember all of our high school French, or at least the important phrases,... more ›

this Saturday at 10 PM. Tickets are on sale now, so get your fishnets and your best bustier ready to do the time warp. Again. more ›

We've always wondered what the protocol is for celebrating a holiday weekend if the actual holiday falls squarely in the middle of the week. Should we be celebrating Independence Day this weekend? Or next weekend? Or should we just celebrate both weekends and spend two weekends in a row gorging ourselves on various grilled meats and icy-cold Coronas and margaritas? (This Phillyist votes the latter.) more ›

The sun may be shining now, but it was pouring this morning, and that was quite the thunderstorm we had last night. This Phillyist is a big fan of summer storms, so long as she's not at any risk of being struck by lightning, which makes the view from her desk (snapped quickly during this morning's deluge, left) kind of awesome for rain-watching. When she's in her apartment, she throws the windows open with reckless abandon, nevermind that the wind is blowing the rain into the bedroom. And when she can find one, she believes that nothing beats sitting on a covered porch or patio while it's raining. more ›