Fun around town, for $10 or less: Free: Reception for artist Duane Michals’ exhibition “The Facts of Life,” a collection of politically driven works relating and exploring issues faced by the gay community, at the Merriam Theater (250 S Broad), 5PM. Free Also Free: Old City Coffee (221 Church) presents Guatemala Night, featuring Guatemalan coffee sampling and Central American food, 6PM. Free All Free, All the Time: The XPN Local, Volume 2 CD Release Party......

Life is better on a Mac. Air is sweeter, food tastes better, and music sounds musicer. Some people (we’ll call them PC users) have a natural disgust for all things Apple—they disparage the products as being over hyped and overpriced; they leer at you from behind inferior laptops in coffeehouses; they roll their eyes in disgust as you casually check the internet on your iPhone, they mock your devotion to a collection of machines as......

2:15 PM I’m in Rittenhouse Square so I’ve stopped at La Colombe for a latte. The line is long but moving fast. La Colombe is easily the trendiest coffeehouse in town. The air is sweeter here; I’ve heard they bring it in from France. 2:16 Wow! I didn’t realize there were so many rich, old, gay men without jobs who like coffee in this city. 2:18 I’m at the counter. I tell the barista......

Starbucks may be closed for three hours this evening, but have no fear! Dunkin' Donuts to the rescue! About an hour ago, Dunkin' started serving up small lattes—of any variety—for 99¢. They'll keep slinging the discounted caffeine (or decaffeine) until 10PM or closing time – whatever comes first at each individual franchise. While you're down there, you may want to try out one of those new Flat Bread [sic] sandwiches they've started selling over......

When this Phillyist gets Starbucks, he's one of those guys with the forty-seven part order. You know the ones: Grande non-fat extra hot caramel no foam extra shot latte on the rocks with a twist little bit of oil hold the mayo. There's much to be said about Starbucks, both good and bad. One of the good things that can be said, and it's the thing that leads to those comically long orders, is that......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Sam Raimi will executive produce a new syndicated, live-action weekly series titled Wizard's First Rule, which is based on Terry Goodkind's fantasy book series The Sword of Truth. Cooper Lawrence, the author who criticized Mass Effect on a now infamous Fox News segment, has finally actually seen the game and is admitting she made a mistake, and that......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Drexel University Winter Dance Ensemble Concert: Following the theme of history, Drexel students, program director Miriam Giguere, Philadelphia choreographer Stephen Welsh, and Cuban choreographer Marianela Boan present works at the Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut), 8PM through Saturday. $8 Yes, There Will Be Dancing Raisins: Opening reception for Claymation legend Will Vinton’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine, a display of his personal art collection, at the Art......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Hold the Blue Eyes: Sinatrah, Gunna Vahm, Cordova, and The Bitter Life Typecast at the Khyber (56 S. 2nd), 8PM. $8 Bob Beach: Bob Beach and Friends at Upstairs at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut), 8PM. Free Karaoke: Wednesday night karaoke at the Coffee Connection (6441 Frankford), 8PM. Free Quizzo Mania: Get your Quizzo on at 12 Steps Down (831 Christian), 9PM; The Black Sheep (247 S. 17th),......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Come As You Are: Come As You Are 90s dance party featuring Amazing Party Tigers Wednesdays at the Khyber (56 S. 2nd), 9PM. Free (21+) Karaoke: Wednesday night karaoke at the Coffee Connection (6441 Frankford), 8PM. Free Quizzo Mania: Get your Quizzo on at 12 Steps Down (831 Christian), 9PM; The Black Sheep (247 S. 17th), 8PM; Dirty Frank’s (13th and Pine), 9PM; Dr. Watson (216 S. 11th),......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. Who knew there was an annual symposium for cocktail robotics? Apparently it's called Roboexotica, it's been around for nine years, it just happened again weekend before last, and Wired has the photos. (Via Jill) This past weekend an auction of items formerly belonging to Ozzy Osbourne and his family raked in a lot of cash, with all the proceeds going to......

Disclaimer: This post relates to an event put on by First Person Arts, of whom Editor Jill is an employee. However, Editor Jill did not have a hand in writing or editing this post. (With the Festival going on this week, she wouldn't have time to, even if she wanted to.) A little while back, we told you about the First Person Story Tour and its colorful "mascot," the Story Tour Van. The Story Tour......

If you were a cool girl, you had a crush on a New Kid. If you were a nerd girl, you had a crush on a graphic artist. Phillyist fell (who are we kidding, falls) into the latter category with a decidedly loud thud. So it is with the drooling affect of an oversexed pre-adolescent that we greet the news that Adrian Tomine, our very first comics crush, will be reading tonight at the Free......

CBS3 broke a story this morning about a heroin bust in Northeast Philly. Over one million dollars in heroin was seized by Philadelphia Police "near 'G' Street and Hunting Park Avenue." The drugs purportedly originated in New York and Colombia (CBS3 put themselves in the crosshairs of our very own Proofreading Philly by misspelling the name of the coffee-and-drugs capital of the world). The cheeky criminals hid the stash, totaling over eight pounds, in the......

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......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

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,......

CultureGrrl points out that the architects just selected to build the new home for the Barnes Foundation apparently had trouble keeping water from dripping down into one of their recent buildings: the American Folk Art Museum. D'oh. 63-year-old retired policeman "Osvaldo Torres walked into the emergency room at Albert Einstein Medical Center yesterday morning, sat for a few moments, then went to a nearby restrooom and shot himself to death." A suicide note was found......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Do Philly frat boys have the worst taste in beer ever? Well, this one does. Remember that interesting little Stickman guy we posted a photo of in a recent Photoist column? Here's some more info on him. As you are probably already aware, the latest adjustments to the iPod and iPhone product lines were announced yesterday. Here's reflections about it all from Nerd......

Sometimes, it's hard to resist the hate. You may not be having an especially bad day – you may in fact be in a good mood. But sometimes the snark comes so naturally that you have to marinate in it. Like it's Lawry's. Today is one of those days for two Phillyists who found themselves in an e-mail conversation about Tori Amos, lactating, and people we'd like to have killed. This may be in poor......

I'd like to amend my position on something: while I still think it's very rude to linger at a restaurant for hours after you've paid your check, especially on a busy night at a restaurant that doesn't accept reservations, it's equally rude for a restaurant to try to shoo you out the door when you haven't even started eating your entree. Case in point: Thursday night, Ross, Spencer, and I (along with Spencer's wife......

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......

Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and Philly dude Andrew Lipke put out his first album, The Way Home..., on Drexel University's student-run record label, MAD Dragon Records, back in February. (The disc was produced by Emmy Award-winning composer and Drexel Professor Jim Klein, so it's got Drexel all over it.) We've been listening to it recently, and we rather like it. It's mighty entertaining, catchy indie alterna-pop with lovely harmonies and an occasional touch of almost orchestral-sounding......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Harry Potter rocks! No, really. That link is to a cool article on the Inquirer about the large and welcoming musical community inspired by the wildly popular series of fantasy books about the boy wizard. Most of its members are quite young and not professional musicians, but that doesn't stop them or their audiences from having a ton......

What do bluegrass and pastry have in common? You can get a little of both tonight at the Regency Cafe in Lansdowne. Cruel Sister will be performing their blend of Southern mountain music, traditional British Isles fare, bluegrass, and American folk from 7-9 pm. The band, which takes its name from a medieval English ballad, are all former Lansdowne residents. The Regency suggests you bring a bottle of wine along with you, though they......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Warning! This video may disturb and unsettle you! Also, don't be drinking anything when you watch it, or you could snarf. (Via Zoe) The Shatner Show is an art show consisting entirely of pieces based around the likeness of the man himself, William Shatner. Yes, the Shat has extended his domination to the art world now. That handsome devil. (Via) Word......

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......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Chill Dogs "I like your dog," she said. "She isn't like most Chihuahua’s. She's chill. That's cool." This laid back artsy girl with a flapper-like hair cut, piercing blue eyes and a blue, cotton dress was standing behind the counter at an extremely chill cafe that serves iced coffee and various cafe accoutrements while paying my friend and his dog, Hannah, the......

I have become, quite by accident, an occasional commuter. The boy, you see, still lives out on the Main Line until August, and once in a while, I end up staying at his place on a weeknight. We've both got places to be in the morning (he to his bar review class, I to my temping position), so he drives me to the train station, kisses me goodbye, and the fun begins. I'm not......

Though I'm more than happy to share with you about quality of bathrooms I see around town, I will never, ever be providing a single detail about what I do once I'm in them. Not my style. But the guys over at 2matters, well, they're more than happy to share. Written by locals who go by the names of "Deucemaster Flash" and "Dr. Dutch Dunkinstein," this self-proclaimed "connection to all fecal matters" is sure to......

With the constant development in the Rittenhouse commercial district over the past few years, the fact that there's a block lingering in the area that doesn't bolster multiple shops and restaurants is simultaneously mind boggling and and comforting. And, yet, if you wander down Sansom, between 19th and 20th, that's just what you'll find. Heading west, on the north side of the street, you'll first come upon Oh! Shea's Pub, followed by a side entrance......