Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Invincible: Outdoor screening of Invincible, part of the City Hall Film Series in the City Hall Courtyard, 8:30PM. Free Improv: The N Crowd present a double feature of improv comedy at the Actors Center (257 N 3rd), 8PM. $10 SATURDAY Three Bands at Once: Rooftop CD release BBQ featuring Controlled Storms, Toy Soldiers, and Power Animal on top of the Whole Foods Parking Garage (929 South), 4PM.......

A 22-year-old New Jersey man found guilty of beating another man in the parking lot before a Phillies game last year, has been sentenced to at least a year of nonreporting probation, allowing him to be deployed to Iraq with the National Guard in just a few weeks. The military deployment is being considered part of his sentence. SEPTA bus schedule changes start tomorrow with Regional Rail changes following on September 7th. It's all part......

Ever wake up in the morning to discover that your favorite radio station has completely switched formats? Instead of waking up to "Layla," you get "Jesus Loves Me," or instead of "Oye Como Va," you get "I Kissed a Girl." Rarely, if ever, do we like it when radio stations change their M.O.s (we still miss Y100, even if it exists online)—but if WYSP introduced its new format this morning with "Paradise City," we think......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. XPN's 885 countdown this year will list the quintessential XPN songs. We're not even sure what that means, but you can go and vote right here. So what's next now that E3 is over? Comic-Con! EW has your photo gallery preview of the event (via). And check out the sweet Star Trek character poster! Amazon has launched a video streaming service called Amazon......

The XPoNential Music Festival kicks off tonight at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront. Featured acts will include The Blind Boys of Alabama, Beth Orton, Alejandro Escovedo, Amos Lee, Ingrid Michaelson, and Joan Osborne. (Remember her? We do, too!) Tickets are available for $25 a day ($17 for XPN Members) or $60 for a four-day pass ($40 for XPN members) online or at the door.......

Nothing about this video is safe for work. Nothing.......

Local music, a film screening with the director and an open casting call for a scary new reality show with a devilish prize. Tuesday is no longer the plain-Jane it has been wont to, uh, be, in the past. And the price tag is pretty nice, too. FOOLING APRIL AND WMMR AT DOC WATSON'S PUB We mentioned Fooling April in our Countdown to 2008 because they're an incredible local band. And the bar tends......

At least Clinton and Obama can agree on one thing: neither of them likes McCain. The Philadelphia Inquirer has coverage of Obama's appearance on sports-talk radio station WIP (610 AM) this morning, where he talked about his poor bowling; the fact that he'd rather be Dr. J than president; and the fact that he prefers the Eagles to the Steelers, but he'll always be a Bears fan first. Meanwhile, Hillary was criticizing Obama and......

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We don't pretend to include everything there is to do today in this post, because let's face it: this city is already crawling with drunkards and it's only noon. Some of us took the day off today, to continue a weekend full of Irish-themed debauchery. Others are sitting in our cubes, sad and alone. Not to mention sober. And working. Not that we would have started drinking already if we......

Beginning late Sunday night, a 30-year-old University of Pennsylvania dental student was held captive by three thieves who ransacked his apartment and then sat around for a while watching reruns of American Gladiator and old movies on his TV. After they finally left 11:30AM yesterday, they went on a shopping spree, buying sneakers, clothes, and gift cards using the man's credit cards and cash from his ATM accounts. Police caught one of the thieves last......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. MoviesOnline has a ton of clips up from the upcoming Neil Marshall film, Doomsday. (Via) The next group in Hollywood we have to worry about striking is the actors. They're represented by the Screen Actors' Guild, who for some reason don't even want to start negotiating with producers until April. So another union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Shame of a City: Inside the Filmmaker’s Studio, a film screening and discussion series showcasing local artists and benefiting Gtown Radio, shows The Shame of a City at the Video Library (7141 Germantown Ave), 7PM. $5 Brassy: Chestnut Brass Company performs works by Krzwycki and Higdon at the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (1906 S. Rittenhouse Sq), 8PM. Free Honky: Full reading of Honky by Greg Kalleres,......

If you haven’t noticed, the Philadelphia sports climate is pretty bleak these days. The Sixers suck. The Eagles are golfing. The Flyers are irrelevant. And the Phillies are currently nickel-and-diming perhaps the greatest slugger in a generation, hoping that an arbitrator will make him play for a relative pittance. So there is pretty much no reason to go to an arena or stadium near you to watch our local pituitary cases compete in the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Really, It’s Comedy: Die Actor Die hosted by Don Montrey and Juliette Pryor at the Khyber (56 S. 2nd), 8PM. $5 Double Feature: Two Hands and Beethoven’s Hair, part of the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, at the Gershman Y (401 S. Broad), 7PM. $10 Fitting Tribute: The Philadelphia Orchestra, with the Philadelphia All City Choir, perform at Martin Luther King Jr. High School (6100 Stenton Ave), 7PM. Free......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Back in Middle School, I was all about competing in speech tournaments. One of my favorite events? Readers' Theatre. One of the scripts that my middle school used for Readers' Theatre? Greater Tuna. Not in its entirety, of course. Readers' Theatre, according to the rules we went by at least, could only be ten minutes long. Also, it probably wouldn't do for a bunch of twelve-year-olds to talk about cross-dressing, animal poisoning, and philanderers. What......

Yesterday morning, we caught the Today Show interview with Maureen Faulkner, the widow of slain Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner. She was being interviewed along with Philadelphia conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish about Murdered By Mumia, the book they wrote together chronicling her struggle after the death of her husband. Most people probably have never heard of Officer Faulkner, but most likely they have heard of the man convicted of his 1981......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Polish Those Ivories: Steve Odabashian’s Happy Hour Piano Show, every Friday at the Cascamorto Piano Bar (1939 Arch), 5-8:30PM. Free Veloz Attack: Veloz Attack, Rellik, Mortal Decay, and Divination at Millcreek Tavern (4200 Chester Ave), 9:30PM. Free (21+) SATURDAY Don’t Be a Scrooge: Readings from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Ebeneezer Maxwell Mansion (200 West Tulpehocken St), 2:30PM. $10 ($5 for kids under 12) Fall......

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! Keep in mind that despite the "top ten" designation, these are in no particular order. Also, most of these bands have been around for a few years, but I only discovered them this......

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......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. MapQuest now has a function for mapping the best gas prices. And perhaps unsurprisingly, all the best prices in the Philadelphia area are in... New Jersey. (Via Allen) Supposedly the new Friday the 13th movie won't be a remake - instead, it'll be a story set between parts two and four (uh... wouldn't that be three?) that features "a leaner, meaner, faster Jason......

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:......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Agent Moosehead: Jazz/Rock combo Agent Moosehead performs upstairs at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 9PM. $8 (includes the processing fee— it’s cheaper if you buy in person/pay with cash) Wareika Hill: Roots, soul and funky reggae collective Wareika Hill at Tritone (1508 South), 9PM. $5 Say Word Wednesday: For those tired of radio, a night of music spun by local DJs presented by Crasher’s Inc, at the Arts......

Let's get this out of the way up front. The video accompanying in this review was not selected for its quality, but because it pretty much embodies what happened at the Wachovia Center last Tuesday night. People went absolutely nutso for Fall Out Boy, to the point where this fan could only concentrate on Patrick Stump while he was doing backing vocals on Gym Class Heroes' performance of "Clothes Off." Seriously, it was pandemonium. We......

The Attorney General's Office has accused Former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of giving his relatives fake jobs in order to pay them thousands in taxpayer dollars. A cheval-de-frise (an iron-tipped log that's placed in a riverbed along with many others in order to gore the hulls of enemy warships) was recently found at the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia. It's a relic from the mid-1770s, 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......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Hey, we’re bad Catholics: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, To Bad Catholics, and Trtl Soup, courtesy of the folks at R5, at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford), 9 PM. $10 (21+) Foreskin’s Lament: Shalom Auslander, author of Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir, will be reading from the book at the Free Library (1901 Vine), 7PM. Free. (P.S. Our friends in Boston can give you the skinny.) Trolleyvox: The Trolleyvox,......

We know the album's been out forever, but everytime our iPod plays that Amy Winehouse song, we find ourselves bellowing along. We're not sure such vocal stylings are for public consumption, but we're thinking after a few sips of the Cap'n, the public's gonna have to listen whether they like it or not. Why? Because tonight we're going to Karaoke Obscura, a DIY karaoke event that happens the first Thursday of every month at......

In our preview of Kenna's show last week, we hit on his three faces as seen in the new album Make Sure They See My Face: the danceable side ("Loose Wires"/"Blink Radio" and "Say Goodbye to Love"), the rock side ("Daylight" and "Face the Gun/Goodluck"), and the contemplative side ("Static" and "Be Still"). Thursday night, all three of these faces were present and accounted for. Though the first few songs were marred by sound trouble,......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Game|Life takes a look at the pros and cons of purchasing the cheapest model of PS3 - the 20GB one. Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law has had its release delayed to January 2008. This was already a rumor, but now it's been strengthened by an anonymous source: the MMO that Bioware is working on now is supposedly set......