Get in one last beach read: PW folks and others give their recommendations for late-summer reading. Also, independent bookmongers show what we’re really buying. All right, we have no excuse for skipping the treadmill ever: Local doc and fitness instructor Marjorie Dejoie (aka Dr. Dej) talks about staying fit while battling sickle cell disease. Enrich yourself, or fail to do so: a guide to area continuing education and enrichment programs. EW! EwEwEw! Yeah yeah, it’ll......

File under inspiring: Story of the homeless Martin Luther King High School senior who made valedictorian and has been accepted at the Art Institute. Now let's find him some cash. As if the flash flooding wasn’t enough: over 4,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the area last night, along with close to 70,000 power outages. A day in the life of a PhillyCarShare Prius. Thrill as the kids go to daycare! More coverage of the......

With Mother’s Day around the corner, I turn my attention to that special someone, a someone who is so important in the makeup of the universe that she has a whole 24 hours named after her. My Mother. My Mother was an amazing woman. She was a single Mother and yet she knew the atomic weight of every element on the Periodic Table. She was stern but fair. When my sister and I would fight......

You know what we're thinking about today? We're only 21 days away from The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...Beware the link, the signature music plays right away, and loudly, too. NEW PARADISE LABORATORIES PRESENTS: PROM! That's right. PROM. Sort of like prom, but capitalized. New Paradise Laboratories, with the help of some Drexel students, is bringing their unique and experiential theater experience to Philadelphia at the Mandell Theater on Drexel's campus. New Paradise themselves described......

You gotta wonder about Penn students (and alums too, as it turns out): they shoot up terrorists, steal panties, and now apparently they adopt other people’s identities and swindle them out of loads of cash. To be fair though, Drexel does share some part of the latter, seeing as one of the accused is still a student there. You all know what we’re talking about right? Because it’s in the friggin international news! So Philly......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Temple University Jazz Ensemble: Presented by Temple University - Boyer College of Music and Dance and directed by Dick Oatts at Klein Recital Hall (13th and Norris), 7:30 PM. Free Jon Regen: Singer, songwriter and pianist Jon Regen plays Upstairs at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut), 8PM. $10 Further Afield: The Killer Within at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (824 W. Lancaster Avenue), 7PM. $9.25 Say Word Wednesday:......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. All-Star Holiday Spirit (Mon, 9PM-10PM, Food Network) - The Food Network stars - including food nerd Alton Brown, freakish bird-woman Giada De Laurentiis, the hated Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, Tyler Florence, and obsessive lush Sandra Lee - prepare holiday party dishes. Should be a good time! Charlie Brown Christmas (Tue, 8PM-9PM, ABC) - The 1965 classic, accompanied by a behind-the-scenes making-of special hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, and......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Nova (Tue, 8PM-9PM, WHYY & WLVT) - This episode apparently consists mainly of footage of a war between termites and fierce, dragon-shaped army ants. The ants are used by a Cameroon tribe known as the Mofu to protect their huts and granaries from the termites. Good times! Wired Science (Wed, 8PM-9PM, WHYY & WLVT) - As always, a great big hodge podge of crazy applications of science......

Mike Doughty Ticket Giveaway
11/15/07-11/16/07 ...

This Sunday, a music legend comes to the World Cafe Live. And he's not just coming to play. Bob Mould (MySpace) will take part in a special Q&A session before performing an intimate acoustic set. Then he'll step aside for a screening of his first concert DVD, Circle of Friends. If that doesn't sound cool, there's something wrong with you. Bob Mould is, of course, the mastermind behind punk/college rock band Hüsker Dü and......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains - A documentary by director Jonathan Demme following Jimmy Carter on his recent book tour for his controversial book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. A great director and an interesting subject should make for a good film. Trailer Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten - Another documentary opening at the Ritz at the Bourse this weekend......

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......

Wednesday The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents the critically-acclaimed Orion Quartet in a concert of Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Perelman Theater (Kimmel Center); 8 PM; $22.50 Thursday Lehigh's Zoellner Arts Center presents Teatro Lirico D’Europa’s production of Rossini's most beloved comic opera, The Barber of Seville. Baker Hall (Lehigh University); 8 PM; $45 Friday The individual members of the Network for New Music Ensemble go solo, playing new solo music that has influenced their......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY First Friday Film Flix: Freshout and Expressway Productions present First Friday Film Fix: A Night of Genre-Defying Indie Film Shorts at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 7PM. $3. SATURDAY You Are Here. Honest: Performance artist Brett Keyser leads interactive expeditions in Independence National Historical Park; the group meets at the APS Museum (104 S. 5th). Requires a sign-up (email the APS Museum museum@amphilsoc.org with your name, phone number,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Science of Sound: Music virtuoso Fiidla performs his World-Soul music at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 8 PM. $8 ($5 student/senior) Reading Comics/Comics Reading: Douglas Wolk will give a brief lecture on the state of comics today (among other things) and Hans Rickheit offers a slideshow of work accompanied by avant garde violin at the Kelly Writer’s House (3805 Locust Walk), 6 PM. Free Miro Dance: Miro Dance......

Wednesday: Celebrate Halloween with ballet’s favorite vampire. Pennsylvania Ballet continues their run of Dracula. Creature of the night? Join the company for their Halloween party after the performance at the DoubleTree Hotel. The Academy of Music, 8PM, $22-124. (Halloween party $25) This performance runs through November 3. Don’t you love a little extra? Miro Dance Theatre offers a bonus Open Studio this week when they host Japan’s Ikyuo Kuroda and the US premiere of her......

Philadelphia area native Alice Sebold's books tackle some pretty hefty topics. Her memoir, Lucky, confronts the rape she experienced as a freshman in college. Her first novel, The Lovely Bones, is told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered. She narrates the story from heaven, watching as her family deals with her death. Sebold's novel may have been a hit at a time when chick lit ruled the shelves, but......

Wednesday The Opera Company of Philadelphia finishes its run of Verdi's timeless and tragic Rigoletto. The Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Sts); 7:30 PM; $7-$205 Acclaimed concert pianist and teacher Seymour Lipkin gives a solo recital of Bach, Brahms, and Debussy presented by the Philadephia Chamber Music Society. American Philosophical Society (427 Chestnut Street); 8 PM; $25 Thursday The Slought Foundation presents Vincent Royer and Philadelphia-based ensemble Noamnesia in an evening of music by......

What's new and/or interesting in theaters this weekend. For the Bible Tells Me So - This is a documentary looking at Christianity and homosexuality, and whether the two can possibly get along. It includes interviews with people on both sides of the debate, and looks at whether the parts of the Bible that are supposedly anti-gay haven't perhaps been taken out of context and used to serve a political agenda. Sounds like a very interesting......

Investigators are still trying to work out how a woman's vehicle ran over both of her legs while she was in the drive-thru lane at a McDonald's in Phoenixville this past Friday. (Via JReedNet, via our contribute page) A whole array of services are now being offered to college students nationwide - as well as right here in the Philadelphia area - with names like DormAid, DormMom, CollegeBellhop and Soapy Joe's. They do things......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own......

Monday As part of Swarthmore's Midday Monday Concert Series, Dolce Suono's Metal and Wood Band will play a free concert of Handel, Dowland, Johnson, Schulhoff, Kreutzer and Piazzolla. Lang Concert Hall (Swarthmore College); 12:30pm; FREE Tuesday Hear the opera singers of tomorrow duke it out today at the Academy of Vocal Arts' Giargiari Bel Canto Competition. Perelman Theater (Kimmel Center); 7:30 PM; $34 The Philadelphia Orchestra continues its run of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Phillyist's......

Sorry there was no Eagles Diary last week. I turned on the channel the game was supposed to be on, saw a team in a blue-and-yellow get up that a Division Nine college football team wouldn’t wear and assumed that the game got canceled. But anyway, I was wrong. The game took place and the Eagles actually scored 56 points and obliterated the Detroit Lions. So I had high hopes for the Eagles latest square-off......

A college student died in West Chester over the weekend from an unusual strain of meningitis called meningococcal meningitis, which is not one of the five or six strains covered by the vaccine recommended for college students. The death has prompted some fear and panic in the area, but only two people have been identified who had close enough contact with the student to warrant antibiotics. The source of the student's infection remains unknown. News......

Monday As part of the Music and Conversation series, Andrea Ceccomori and Elitza Harbova will perform and discuss works for flute and piano by living Italian and American composers. Roberts Hall (Haverford College); 4:15 PM; FREE Tuesday The Philly Orchestra continues its run of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, now paired with works by Rihm and Reinecke. Check out Phillyist's review here. Verizon Hall (Kimmel Center); 8 PM; $38-$113 Friday As part of the Last......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. Welcome to the next big steps forward in lolcats meme technology: lolsecretz (via) and lolthulhu. Brilliant! Artsy gamers just might want to enter Konami's Design Your Own Contra Character contest. Make a game character that embodies what Contra is all about and you could have your design included as an unlockable character in Contra 4 Mobile, get your name in the game credits,......

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......

Wednesday Curtis opens its season with faculty members Joseph Silverstein, violin, and Awadagin Pratt, piano, in an evening of sonatas by Brahms, Ravel, and Franck. Curtis Institute of Music (18th and Locust); 8 PM; Free Thursday Temple continues its faculty recital season with Charles Abramovic, piano, in a solo recital featuring works by Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Scriabin, and Bolcom. Rock Hall (Temple University); 7:30 PM; FREE Even though it feels like fall, the Philadelphia Orchestra......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Most Likely to Suck: Freshman Orientation - Oh, lovely. Another comedy where a straight guy pretends to be gay for some stupid reason. We're already really tired of this genre. This one is also crossed with another of our least favorite genres, the college sex comedy. A freshman guy discovers that a freshman girl is trying to get into a sorority, and in order to do......

Yes, it's back! Classical music concerts have returned to Philadelphia after a much-deserved break. Get excited for the upcoming year. Monday The Momenta String Quartet presents a free lunchtime concert, mixing some of its new season with some old favorites. Swarthmore College; 12:30 PM; FREE Tuesday Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra Sextet combines jazz sensibilities with unexpected sound clips and visuals. Catch them on tour as they stop at Philadelphia's International House. International House Philadelphia......