Dear Mamaist: Lately, I've been babysitting a lovely little girl two days a week. Her parents are close friends of mine, and they named her for one of their personal literary heroines, which you know I think is awesome. She's five months old and thinks just about everything I do is funny, except for when she's a little tired. But when she is tired, I put her down in her crib and play lullaby versions......

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! I'm a music guy. I listen to a ton of music, and because of Phillyist, I've been able to hear a lot of great stuff I never would have heard otherwise. But, no......

To the Writers Guild of America: It's not that I don't support your fight. I do. I've signed your petition. I'm a writer myself, and I'd hate it if I wasn't profiting from my own work. (If I was working in TV or film, that is – bloggers don't exactly earn residuals...) But here's the thing: as I write this, I'm watching a month-old episode of Journeyman. My DVR is 95% full. I've just discovered......

Last night, I was at the Trocadero to see MGMT and what they’re all about. What I can tell you, amigos, is that these gangly dudes put out pure, unadulterated funk. The first song that I heard in its entirety was "Electric Feel." These are my thoughts, in retroactive real time, regarding what was going on in front of me: If only this band wasn’t plagued by the arbitrary assignment of ‘opener’…If only this crowd......

In case you haven't noticed by now, this Phillyist likes Fair to Midland. A lot. We dug 'em when we saw them in July, so we jumped at the chance to see them again. We walked into the show expecting much the same as we got the first time around, and for the first time, that's exactly what we got. Darroh Sudderth is still a hell of a vocalist but something of a recluse in......

Fair to Midland Ticket Giveaway
9/5/07-9/6/07 ...

Recently, I attended a screening of Bratz: The Movie, which is being released in theaters everywhere today. This was my first movie screening and it was intense. Going in, I knew that it was a movie that chronicles the lives of four “BFF”s throughout the formative years of their high school lives. What I didn’t know was that it would be attended by 783 children between the ages of eight and thirteen. As I entered......

Scout Niblett (that's her with the monkey) is a woman who sings and plays guitar, and we like her 3-song EP Dinosaur Egg, released back in May. The title track is about really hoping your dinosaur egg hatches and your robot slave springs to life in time for that party on Friday, so of course we love it. There's also a neat cover of The Cars' classic "Just What I Needed," and a slower,......

Ross Currie contributed to this piece. Admittedly, when we were contacted by Fair to Midland's publicist, we agreed to cover tonight's show at the TLA (yeah, yeah, the Fillmore) without having ever heard a Fair to Midland song, owing solely to the fact that we liked the band's name. (We're big fans of "clever.") Also to the fact that we tend to be supportive of anything non-political that comes out of Texas. So we requested......

Dear Philadelphia Motorists: A red light is not a polite suggestion. A coworker of mine was hit by a car about a year ago. I don't really know all the details of the accident. What I do know is that one of his legs was more or less completely shattered, and that he now has a steel rod where his bone should be. He is lucky he can walk at all now, and he'll never......

By now you may have read about the arrest of 20-year-old street singer Anthony Riley on charges of disorderly conduct. He is, apparently, one of several criminals (read: victims) recently caught by police in an attempt to quell the evil uprising of mimes, musicians and street-based merry-makers terrorizing our city's wealthier residents. Yes, Riley is not, it seems, alone in his artful rebellion. Felix Wilkins was arrested last month for attacking hapless passersby with the......

Tonight. 8 p.m. Damien Rice. Mann Music Center. Joygasm. The thing that grabbed us back in 2003 about Damien Rice's debut album, O, was the cello. Having played the instrument ourselves for eight years, we are a sucker for the cello. And then there was his voice. That haunting, lilting voice that expressed so much in one verse. What I am to you is not real What I am to you you do not......

Know who's playing the Electric Factory this coming Thursday? Arctic Monkeys (MySpace) and be your own PET (MySpace). If you don't know why this will be an awesome show... well, first of all, where have you been and what's wrong with you? And second of all, these are both bands that are known to be even better live, and their recorded stuff already rocks. BYOP is Sonic Youth-approved, and all crazy lyrics and smashing......

Fair to Midland Giveaway
5/2/07-5/6/07...

Film: Consequences Future Screenings: No future screenings scheduled Once in a while, you hear about a movie that gets booed at a film festival, that film festival usually being Cannes, a.k.a. the film festival to end all film festivals. Having your film booed at Cannes is almost a death sentence: the film has to be re-edited, new scenes have to be filmed, and even then, chances are that it won't do very well in the......

Bands I Caught: The Cobbs, The Asteroid #4 Venue: Johnny Brenda's This season in hipster fashion, it's all about stripes. Horizontally-striped sweaters. Diagonally-striped tunics. Vertically-striped pants. Stripes, stripes, stripes. You just can't be in a band without 'em! In all seriousness, this post marks the beginning of Phillyist's POPPED! coverage. We can't guarantee we'll be out every night, or that we'll see all the bands if we do, but we're trying our best. If you......

So this week, I left my apartment. Went to work, rehearsals, bars, shows, etc. What I didn't do was see a single new bathroom. I did, however, scrub mine. Forty-five minutes' worth of Scrubbing Bubbles, Cucumber Melon Method Spray, and Clorox wipes later, it shone. It's been a few days, but I still maintain that my bathroom is currently cleaner than my kitchen (disgusting, I know). Now, I'm not taking pictures of my bathroom and......

I am no stranger to St. Patrick’s Day in Philly. I know that many take it as an excuse to get all kinds of trashed. I know that after a certain point on March 17th, green beer stops seeming like such a gross beverage option. What I didn’t know was just how painful all this foolishness is when you have yet to imbibe any of the aforementioned foul-colored beer. Saturday evening, I had just gotten......

I would be a complete hypocrite if I said that I wasn't guilty of the occasional breach of decorum. I like to think that I'm better than most, but that doesn't mean I'm perfect. Fortunately, I'm the co-editor of this pretty big blog in Philadelphia, where I write a manners column, and I can use that column as a forum for others to learn from my mistakes. I'm usually really good with alcohol. Few people......

Dear Retailers: I know that it's the holidays, and you're experiencing a serious crunch right now. I know that you have to hire part-time staff this time of year. I know that it's hard to train them while there are so many other things going on in the store. I know all of these things. I understand. What I don't understand is how you could fail to teach your seasonal employees important skills like......

Okay. Movie snob here. Seriously. Give me subtitles. Give me handheld cameras. Give me just about anything playing at one of the Ritz theatres. But once in a while? Give me a cartoon. About animals. Something where the characters are so cute that you want to jump through the movie screen into the film, and cuddle with them. That’s what Happy Feet is. One hour and forty-five minutes of adorableness. Singing, dancing penguins. Fluffy......

Phillyist is pleased and proud to welcome Katie Kuhl into the fray. In addition to looking for love in all the wrong places, Katie is a local actress who will someday be doing great things, onstage and in life. Just you wait. One of my dearest, darling manhunting partners emailed me this today: “Lots of Missed Connections on Craigslist at The Last Drop. We need to start spending more time there.” I didn’t know what......

Dear Philadelphia: Summer is officially here again, so it’s time for Return to Sender to visit one of its favorite columns from last year. I just don’t think enough of you are taking Phillyist seriously enough. Which is why we’re presenting you with two case studies, snapped on anonymous camera phones. And why we’ll continue to present you with them, from time to time, if we deign it necessary. And Philadelphia? It’s always necessary. Exhibit......

On my usual walk home through the Gallery this evening, at around a quarter to 5, I took my iPod earbuds out because I was hearing this weird noise. Turns out it was the fire alarm, and folks were taking it seriously. Shoppers slowly began wandering out of the mall, and shops began closing up as employees filed out. I decided it would be prudent to follow, especially after I heard from several people......

You may not know the name Jenny Holzer, but you've probably seen at least one of the products of her enormously influential body of work. For almost thirty years, she has explored the expressive potential of public text. On Wednesday, November 16, the artist offered a retrospective of her work and insight on her creative process to a packed house at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Part aphoristic......

Chris and Phil return this week in the wake of a terrible sweep at the hands of the Wild Card leading Houston Astros. Today, Mustazza and Sandick tackle Billy Wagner's recent troubles, what the Phils' bullpen should look like next season, and how the Phillies have to play over these last 22 games in order to win the Wild Card. 1. While it was only two games, the Astros seemed to expose Billy Wagner, beating......

Ronnie Polaneczky has read our minds. The Daily News columnist read Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's book and found - surprise, surprise - a massive amount of stinking hypocrisy.But here's what he wrote regarding his demand that government increase the child credit and tax deduction for parents with kids: "The government actually provides less help the more children you have. The opposite should be true, and I am working on some amendments to fix this......