Fun around town, for $10 or less: Knitty: Weekly knitting circle at Vagabond (37 N 3rd), 6-8PM. Free Goes Down Better with Sugar: "Consuming Culture: A Story of Have and Have Nots," a night of theater, song, shadow puppetry and assorted antics presented by local artists Anna Whitehead and Michelle Posadas at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 7:30PM. Free Quizzo Mania: Get your Quizzo on at 12 Steps Down (831 Christian), 9PM; The Black Sheep (247......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY: Last Friday: Last Friday featuring author Samara O’Shea and musician Gina Kaz at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S 18th), 7PM. $5 Free R&B: Sounds of R&B series finale featuring Ledisi and Lalah Hathaway at the Great Plaza on Penn’s Landing (Chestnut and Columbus Blvd), 7:30PM. Free City Hall Film Series: Showing this week: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in the courtyard at City......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Q!: Spiral Q Puppet Theater at Philadelphia City Institute branch of the Free Library (1905 Locust), 6:45PM. Free Breaking Rule One: Movie Monday hosted by Spike presents Fight Club plus some raffle prizes at the Troc (1003 Arch), 6:30PM. $3 Open Mic: Free at The Fire (412 W. Girard). Sign up at 8:30PM. (21+) Sing Your Life!: Karaoke With DJ Sara Sherr Mondays upstairs at the Khyber (56......

No debate: there’s no better, or more appropriate, place to celebrate the birth of our nation than right here in Philly. Here are a few things to help you enjoy your freedom this weekend. The best part? Most of it’s free. Today: Forget lunch, there’s cake! A reading of the Declaration of Independence is followed by an eight foot cake that’s needs some eating. Head over to the Independence Visitor Center at noon to snag......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY We Heart Toy Theater: Adaptation to aforementioned toy theater of Howard Zinn’s Emma at the DaVinci Art Alliance (704 Catherine), 7PM. Free (donations accepted) The Wimyn: Wimyn’s Original Rock Festival featuring Phyllis Chappell, Cris Valkeria, Kate Foust, Nicola Visaggio, Urbana, and more at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 8PM. $10 The Last: Last Friday at the Philadelphia Art Alliance featuring local artists Katie Ford and John Conahan at......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Flamenco Jam: First Friday Juerga, a flamenco jam session featuring collective playing, singing, and dancing hosted by Pasion y Arte at the Casino Free Philadelphia Office (230 N 2nd), 7PM. Free Bossa Nova: Bucks County native Avi Wisnia celebrates the release of his new Brazilian Bossa Nova inspired album at Tin Angel (20 S 2nd), 7:30PM. $10 The N Crowd: Improv comedy troupe the N Crowd perform......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Center City District Gallery Night: Special exhibitions and complimentary cocktail receptions at participating galleries, 5-8:30PM. Free Not a Crock, Nor a Croc: Local poet Peter Krok reads and signs copies of his new collection Looking for an Eye at the Grey Lodge Pub (6235 Frankford), 6-8PM. Free The Terror!: Welcome to the Terrordome, a night of local comedy featuring Animosity Pierre, Meg and Rob, and Secret Pants......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Boxcutter Cabaret: Puppet Uprising presents the Boxcutter Cabaret, featuring musicians, artists, and, our favorite, puppeteers at the Walking Fish Theater (2509 Frankford Ave), 8PM. $10 Free Music: World Blanket and The March Hare at the Balcony at the Troc (1003 Arch), 10PM. Free Open Mic: Free at The Fire (412 W. Girard). Sign up at 8:30PM. (21+) Sing Your Life!: Karaoke With DJ Sara Sherr Mondays upstairs at......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Music of Regret: Artist Laurie Simmons introduces her The Music of Regret, a mini-musical in three acts, as part of the ICA Puppet Show, at the International House (3701 Chestnut), 7PM. $6 Thinking Is Hard: "Critical Thinking," a panel discussion of Philly’s One Film The Emperor of the Sun, at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 7PM. Free Drinking Is Not: Test your knowledge of The Emperor of......

Martina Plag demonstrates how puppets' eyes are carved deeply into their skulls so as to convey emotion. Mum Puppettheatre's production of The Master and Margarita opened last week (our review is forthcoming), but before it opened, I was invited to Mum's basement to see how the dozens of puppets needed for the production would take shape. It's key to remember that, despite the title of this article, Mum is a puppettheatre: one that presents......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Some Art for the Wall: 5th Annual Emerging Artists and Emerging Leaders Art Auction, with entertainment by local guitarist Marisol Rampolla and an open bar, at Drexel University - Paul Peck Alumni Center (32nd and Market), 7PM. $10 There Are Some Who Aren’t?: Local author Lynn Hoffman reads from his novel bangBANG, the story of “a feisty Philly waitress,” at Molly’s Bookstore (1010 S. 9th), 7:30PM. Free......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Puppets!: Doug and Mike’s Adult Entertainment at the Institute of Contemporary Art (118 S. 36th), 6PM. $6 Further Afield—But Worth It: The Best of Black Lily Film and Music Festival 2007 at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (824 W. Lancaster), 7PM. $9.25 It’s Just a Flesh Wound: Fred Is Dead and Joe Jordan’s Experiment at Tritone (1508 South), 10PM. $5 Quizzo Mania: Get your Quizzo on at 12......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Massive: WZT Hearts, Wet Hair, Secret Abuse, Nimby, Evan Miller, Teeth Mountain, and Prince Hand Vs. Prince Hand at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), doors 7:30PM. $5 Celebration: Opening reception for A Celebration of Life and Art, works by the late Marge Peterson, at Highwire Gallery (2040 Frankford), 5-9PM. Free Reading: David Levithan reads from his new short story collection, How They Met and Other Stories, at Giovanni’s......

For the Love of Pig Iron, Pig Iron Theatre Company's fundraiser, only happens once per year, so we're not going to trouble you with a full review that might make your mouth water and your jealousy rise. If you weren't there, try to make it next year. That's all. Highlights you may have missed from this year's benefit, "The Swining": An opening dance-comedy piece choreographed to iconic "scary movie" music (like the scores to Jaws......

To say we like puppets is probably an understatement. What’s there not to like about talking pieces of wood? Or, for that matter, watching humans channel their emotions and desires through a manipulate-able avatar? Twilight Zone aside, it sounds like a surefire recipe for fun. The Institute for Contemporary Art obviously agrees: their new exhibit The Puppet Show, which looks at the imagery of puppets in contemporary art, opens tonight at ICA’s Winter Opening Reception......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: If You Missed Them on Conan: Bell X1 performs at Upstairs at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 9PM. Free Where’s That?: Ars Nova Workshop presents Little Women and Where From Here? at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 8PM. Free An Inconvenient Puppet: Puppet Karaoke Inconvenient Goof Show, hosted by Al Gor, at the M Room (15 W. Girard), 9PM. $5 Go Batty: Aderbat, Bon Savant, An American Chinese, and......

We love puppets. We really love puppets. In fact, the only thing that we may love more than puppets is pasta. So how happy are we that we’ll be able to combine both of our loves this weekend when Great Small Works rolls into town, bringing their famous Spaghetti Dinner/Toy Theater evening to the Rotunda. Puppet Uprising hosts the New York natives for two shows, Friday and Saturday night at 7:30PM. Okay, so they......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Ivo Perelman/Domininc Duval: Ivo Perelman and Dominic Duval presented by Ars Nova Workshop at the Rotunda (4014 Walnut), 8PM. Free (donations accepted) Puppet Karaoke: Puppet Karaoke Psychic Rodeo Show with Meg and Rob at Manhattan Room (15 W. Girard), 9PM. $5 Don McCloskey: Don McCloskey with Bryan Master at the Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd), 8:30PM. $10 Benefit for Project H.O.M.E.: Soraia, Fat City Reprise, Maybe Pete, and......

So, you've read Phillyist's overwhelmingly positive review of Mum Puppettheatre's production of A Christmas Carol earlier today and you want to see what the to-do was all about? You lucky duck, you. Because, you see, Mum loves Phillyist. And Mum loves Phillyist readers. So much so, that they're offering a special discount to all Phillyist readers: go to this link and get five dollars off of every ticket you buy! The offer is only valid......

Disney has this remarkable ability to adapt classic fairy tales and works of literature, distill them down to their basic moral cores, slap a happy ending on the end where one might not belong, and make us forget how incredibly dark their source material is. So it is with Mickey's Christmas Carol, and, to a certain extent, the now-Disney-owned Jim Henson Company's feature film, The Muppet Christmas Carol, the two interpretations of Dickens' cherished holiday......