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! My favorite part about about being a Phillyist writer is the late-night orgies checking out all sorts of music I never would have heard of, let alone heard, if I wasn't involved......

In the last few weeks, the Eagles have looked absolutely anemic against the Giants, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against da' Bears, and unimpressively beaten a couple hopeless teams in the Jets and the Vikings by a mere touchdown apiece. So forgive me for not being that optimistic about Sunday night's game against the Cowboys. Sure, our defense has been fairly solid... if we forget that last 1:57 of the Bears game, where......

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,......

When we sat down to write a preview for tonight's Bad Religion show at the Electric Factory, we got a serious case of writers' block. That's probably because we figure everyone reading this knows who Bad Religion is and what they sound like. So this is really to call your attention to the fact that Bad Religion is in town, in case you didn't know and might want to rearrange your schedule to catch the......

Phillyist is a huge Eagles fan, despite having to go on blood pressure meds after Monday night. We're also fans of the 1933 gear they have out this year for their anniversary, and have already acquired several items to clothe our couch-team. The Birds will be wearing throwback jerseys during Sunday's game versus the Lions, and tonight, you'll have a chance to acquire one for yourself. It's Midnight Madness at the Eagles Pro Shop at......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law the video game will be coming out for Wii, as well as PS2 and PSP, on November 13. Your Guitar Hero updates for today: according to Billboard magazine, Aerosmith is working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV, and the game just might be all Aerosmith music. We don't mind a little Aerosmith now and......

Alison Sudol, better known on stage as A Fine Frenzy, is more than just a pretty face: she's also a musician with both a level of talent and a musical maturity well beyond her twenty-two years. You can classify her music as "alternative," we suppose – but it's definitely not your little sister's brand of alternative. Her single "You Picked Me," a gorgeous, sincere love song written in an unconventional 6/8 time signature, is the......

It is true. We have a love of fiddle-playing, banjo-picking bluegrass music. (Not country - that's a whole different story.) This week, Philadelphia has the privilege of hosting two of bluegrass' biggest acts: Alison Krauss (tonight) and Nickel Creek (Saturday night). Alison Krauss is known for basically transforming bluegrass music back into popular music. It's no doubt you have heard her Grammy-nominated tunes on movies such as O, Brother Where Art Thou? or Cold Mountain.......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

We love when we get the opportunity to see a ton of bands in one shot. We love it even more when a couple of the bands are old favorites of ours and others are bands we've never heard of, because it gives us the chance to check out some new music, and if we don't like what we hear, we can always go back to the stuff we know and be completely satisfied.......

Phillyist has always been a big fan of Guillermo Pernot, and with good reason. All of his endeavors have been, in our opinion, palate-worthy if not concept-worthy. He has won awards, written a book and Pasion has always been a consistently great dining mainstay. His standards precede his reputation, which is probably why he has such a good one. With some endeavors more popular than others (think Trust in what is now El Vez),......

The 2007 Sunoco Welcome America! Festival launched yesterday (complete with live map to tell you where the festivities are, or, if you're like us, what parts of the city to avoid over the next few days). Between now and Wednesday, there's a ton of celebratin' to do, as part of Welcome America! or otherwise. We know that at some point, we'll be barbecuing some burgers and dogs, and watching fireworks are an absolute must,......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. List time: The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations on the Web. We've only seen one of these before, as far as we can remember, and they're all pretty clever. (Via) Penny Arcade continues to be funny. We are pleased. We don't know if it's "Pulitzer-caliber" like it claims (actually, we're hoping that's a joke), but this site, entitled......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

The Graduate's debut CD entitled Anhedonia is definitely not lacking what the CD's title refers to. Anhedonia is the loss of capacity to experience pleasure. It usually occurs in people with depression and schizophrenia. This is not what we felt as we listened to their new CD. Again, Philly's music scene is rockin' and this is a show you should run to before The Graduate becomes so big you'll have to buy lawn tickets at......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Google Maps is extremely helpful with directions, even when you're going across oceans (see step 23). (Via) A student was suspended in North Carolina because he came to school dressed as a pirate, and his costume was "disruptive." The student says the punishment is a violation of his rights, as his religion dictates that he must dress in "full pirate regalia." Yep, he's......

Implosions are awesome. Just ask the thousands of people who crowded into South Philly's streets, and eventually, onto Interstate 76 to watch the implosion of Veterans Stadium at 7:00 AM on March 21, 2004. Some kept their Saturday night parties raging until morning. Others got an early start to their Sundays. Both groups had their drinks to keep them going: beer in paper bags or Wawa coffee in paper cups. Phillyist was part of the......

Kiss Kiss bassist Pat happens to be the brother of my good friend and house-mate Chris and, while I have yet to see them perform live, Chris tells me it is an event that no one should miss. I heard the new album via ITunes and their music is fucking brilliant. They go from near-System of a Down intensity to sweeping, epic interludes and back again in minutes. It's the most original stuff you'll hear......

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Read this and weep. It's the results of the Superbrawl of Rock listener voting contest that 94.1 Free FM had Super Bowl weekend. Now, we kind of like Disturbed - at least, we like their cover of "Land of Confusion" - and Linkin Park can be all right, too, but how in the hell did those two bands end up in......

As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. The blog Strange Maps brings us the tourist map of Gotham, complete with plenty of interesting tidbits of history and trivia about the Dark Knight's home town. (Via) Check it out, the Pinball Locator! It's a user-contributed, searchable database of every place you can go in the world to play pinball. Sadly, there's only one spot listed in......

We've been totally grooving to the Robbers on High Street all week. We have their EP, The Fatalist and Friends, at home. We created a Pandora station focused on them. We're doing our best not to dance to them at our desk right now. They're the kind of high-energy, bass-driven, indiepop that we find pretty irresistible. And we've pretty much only just heard of them. (They did a very brief cameo on Love Monkey,......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. List! This time it's Tired Science Fiction Tropes That Must Be Retired. A lot of them are really more complaints about the poor science in science fiction, rather than complaints about the cliches of science fiction, but some good points are still made. (Via) 100 Pirates in 100 Days. That pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Arrrr. (Via) Heh heh heh. Now......

The alt-punk NYC sensation the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were exploding out all over the place even before the release, in 2003, of their first full-length album Fever to Tell, featuring the incredible (and incredibly over-played) single "Maps," have been pretty much invisible for the past few years, but are back now and touring behind a brand new album: Show Your Bones. On the first listen, Phillyist was a little disappointed by "Gold Lion," the......

Since its opening, Phillyist has now been to Amada six or seven times and feel the need to go back many more to eat our entire way through the extensive tapas menu.... Must haves include the patatas bravas (not exactly authentic as we have been to Barcelona and tasted many variations, but delicious nonetheless), the ham croquetas (trust us, you will be dreaming about them), the garlic shrimp (now THAT was authentic and made us feel we were actually on Las Ramblas) and the OH-MY-GOD mixto cheeseplate.... Last but not least, would be the ramao with truffled lavender honey (we plan on duplicating this cheeseplate for our guests at our next dinner party and will no doubt impress them)....

The concept, developed by Aldo Lamberti who owns and operates a number of Italian restaurants, brings the Amalfi Coast to Walnut Street through décor, cuisine and pleasant hospitality. Upon entering the restaurant, we were warmly greeted by the General Manager who asked if we would like to sit at the bar or in the dining area – a solid, legitimate, question. After a very long career and countless meals in the hospitality and restaurant world it has been concluded the old saying “there’s no such thing as a stupid question” doesn’t apply in the restaurant world, so it is extremely appreciated when asked one that makes sense.... The décor includes mammoth, backlit images of beautiful gardens, coastlines and architecture of Positano as well as starched linen clothing (which was a bit weird because each item was outlined with a visible blue magic marker line) reminiscent of the clothes worn in the Southern Italian heat.The menu, encouraging the table to share family style, featured a variety of small plate options of starters and entrees....

Phillyist has long believed that online map services were created to give us general directions to the nearest pizza shop and to allow us to look up satellite photos of the house we grew up in, the school we went to, and the office in which we are so bored to tears that we are driven to look at satellite photos of our childhood haunts on-line. Poking around del.icio.us, however, we learned that some people......

This weekend, if you're a spoilsport looking for something non-Halloween related to do, you might want to head down to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for Treasures...From the Silk Road to the Sante Fe Trail - their first annual show and sale of 18th, 19th and 20th century art and textiles culled from the world over. Despite being called "Treasures," the show's itinerary is sadly bereft of pirates and maps where......

If you haven't noticed, we're kinda obsessed with SEPTA here at Phillyist. But really, who isn't? Our loveable mass transit system is a great resource for an easy joke and limited transportation around the city. Still, there are some limitations. For instance, have you ever been wandering the city with your 60 gigabyte iPod Photo thinking, "Gee, I wish there was a way for me to bring up a SEPTA map on my 60 gigabyte......