Nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like Handel's Messiah. Despite the fact that much of Messiah's subject matter is better-suited for Easter, it has made itself a Christmas-time staple of choirs around the world. Because of its length (three hours), it's not too often that you hear Handel's Messiah in its entirety, much less on period instruments. Some argue that modern instruments fill Handel's texture out, but I find that they detract from......

The big story around these parts continues to be the arrest and imprisonment of CBS3 anchorwoman Alycia Lane. The Daily News has an article about the incident, focusing on Lane's call to the governor from prison, which she apparently made in order to "make sure he knew her side of the story because he is an opinion-maker and runs around in influential circles." A 4-year-old in Southwest Philadelphia shot himself once in the throat......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Try Not to Get Sick on Your Shoes: Positively Sick on South Street, featuring Jukebox Zeros, The Victims, and Women, all to the backdrop of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians at Tritone (1508 South), 9PM. $6 Philabundance Benefit: Featuring Lizanne Knot, John Conahan, the Hustle, and Kuf Knotz at Upstairs at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 7PM. $8 + a canned good SATURDAY Could You Hold the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Savoring the Salt: Scribe Video Center, Film at International House, and Temple University Press present “A Celebration of the Film Work of Toni Cade Bambara,” including a panel discussion and screening of The Bombing of Osage Avenue at the International House (3701 Chestnut), 7PM. $10 The Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret: Our favorite Martha brings her fabulous cabaret to L'Etage (634 S. 6th), on the 2nd floor of Creperie......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Paranormal State (Mon, 10PM-11PM, A&E) - The debut of a new reality show featuring members of Penn State University's Paranormal Research Society investigating reports of paranormal phenomena. During this hour, they seem to be playing two episodes, one about a boy who can supposedly see dead people, and another about a supposedly haunted house where murders were committed. Independent Lens (Tue, 10PM-11:30PM, WHYY) - It's another Penn......

With a preliminary hearing for the case scheduled for tomorrow, the Inquirer takes another look at the 41-year long murder of Police Officer William Barclay. Pennsylvania officials will decide soon whether to spend $45 million to build a stadium in Chester as the final step toward securing a Major League Soccer team for the Philadelphia area. Right now, Philly is second behind St. Louis for the remaining expansion slot, its chances contingent on a stadium......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: THIS JUST IN:The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is holding a $10 ticket sale today, featuring 14 upcoming jazz and classical music performances (list after the jump). You can call the box office at 215-569-8080, or order the tickets online using the discount code "HolidayOffer." Air Power: Wind Quintet and Piano featuring the music of Poulenc, Barber, Ibert, and Higdon at First Unitarian Church (2125 Chestnut), 7:30PM. Free Sing,......

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! 5. After kidnapping her two children, Britney Spears goes on the lam before being finally caught in Old City, Philadelphia, attempting to stuff her sons into the Liberty Bell. Seems she thought it......

The Inquirer takes a closer look at the Philadelphia policeman who was shot the day before the shooting of Chuck Cassidy, by a gunman who then fled and ultimately drowned in the Schuylkill. They also put the incident in the larger context of criminals in Philadelphia getting released from jail only to commit more crimes and be arrested again, over and over. Meanwhile, another Philadelphia police officer was injured this weekend, this time by......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Friday: Last Friday: Last Friday at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S. 18th), featuring visual, literary, and performance offerings, 7PM. Free Saturday: Space is the Place: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts hosts a family day inspired by their Space is the Place exhibit, 11AM-4PM. Free with museum admission, $5-7 (children, adults) No, Not the Bourne: Arab: The Born Identity, featuring four spoken word poets sharing their experiences......

Two separate laws aimed at making most government records public by default are making their way through the state legislature. The House bill, which was approved by a committee yesterday, is stronger than the bill that was passed by the Senate yesterday, 48-1. Another day, another shooting in Philadelphia. Two officers responding to a call about a man causing a disturbance in West Philadelphia early yesterday morning chased the man into an alley, where he......

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:......

First, some updates on stories we linked to yesterday: the Inquirer has the unsettling details and about the shooting of a 5-year-old boy early yesterday morning, and how it connects with other recent incidents of violence in the city. As for the Turnpike shutdown, it lasted six hours, causing a ripple effect of traffic jams on adjacent roadways and stranding hundreds of motorists at the height of morning rush hour. The judge in the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Getting It On, Etruscan Style: Lecture on Desperate Etruscan Housewives, followed by gallery tour and refreshments at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (3260 South), 5PM. Free Moonstone Poetry Series: Poetry reading featuring Daniel Collins and Jim Mancinelli at Robin’s Book Store (108 S. 13th), 6PM. Free Astral Lounge:The Astral Lounge, the Tea Club, Kevin Elliot and the Broken, and Nathan Gaunt at the Khyber......

Wednesday As part of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society series, Christian Tetzlaff, violin and Alexander Lonquich, piano will give a concert of Beethoven Sonatas. Perelman Theater (Kimmel Center); 8 PM; $22.50 Thursday Acclaimed tenor Matthew Polenzani, accompanied by the accomplished pianist Julius Drake, will give a solo recital of songs by Schubert, Beethoven, Liszt, Britten, and Hahn. Perelman Theater (Kimmel Center); 8 PM; $22.50 The Curtis Opera Theater pairs Haydn's Arianna a Naxos with Poulenc's......

The "10,000 men: A Call to Action" campaign will get started in earnest on Saturday when they put the first 200 men on the streets. It'll be a field exercise for squad leaders, and apparently they'll also be doing a door-to-door campaign to alert neighbors of the effort. Then they'll be patrolling in South Philadelphia next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of police officer Chuck Cassidy, was......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

The Inquirer has the story of an American soldier from Bucks County who worked hard in Iraq trying to rebuild the country and is now home for the holidays. Princeton University scientists announced yesterday that they'd discovered a way to reproduce the chemical signals that the bacteria that cause cholera use to communicate with each other, which opens up the possibility of a new way to fight bacteria: talking to them in their own......

The Inquirer takes another look at the troubling recent increase, both locally and nationally, in the shooting of police. Mayor Nutter, in his first speech outside the city since the election, as the keynote speaker at the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry's annual dinner, got a standing ovation before and after, and urged Southeastern Pennsylvania to come together and work as one to achieve greatness. Police are still investigating gunshots fired shortly before......

Tuesday The Academy of Vocal Arts opens its season with Mozart's witty and timeless Così fan tutte. Academy of Vocal Arts (19th and Spruce); 7:30 PM; $48 Yo-Yo Ma comes to the Kimmel Center with Kathryn Stott, piano for an evening of Schubert, Shostakovich, Piazzola, Gismonti and Franck. Verizon Hall (Kimmel Cetner); 8 PM; $38-$94 Thursday Temple University faculty members Lawrence Wagner, clarinet, Jeffrey Solow, cello, and Charles Abramovic, piano give a concert of......

We weren't going to write a review of this weekend's Martha Graham performance, namely since we were seeing the last show. But after leaving the Zellerbach Theater on Saturday, we resolved that we had to send a big wet kiss on the mouth to the dancers from the University of the Arts who performed Panorama. We wrote that student dancers would fill out the troupe for Panorama, which calls in this incarnation for 33......

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on......

Local student Dan Magro wears many hats. He is (as mentioned) a student, at the University of the Arts. He is a Starbucks employee in Southampton. He is a writer/filmmaker. And tonight, he will add to that hat-list "philanthropist." Magro's movie, Portraits of Sari, premieres tonight at Gershman Hall (corner of Broad and Pine), but you'll be getting more than just a movie with your attendance. It turns out that the lead actor in Portraits,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Flea Market, Theater Style: Clothing Flea Market from theatrical stock at the Wilma Theater (265 S. Broad), 3-7PM. Free admission (most items $2-20). Also on Saturday, 12-4PM. Requires Audience Participation: Improv with The N Crowd at the Actor’s Center (257 N. 3rd), every Friday, 8-10PM. $10 SATURDAY Rare Bird: Part of the Philly Improv Festival, featuring Jackie, Cathcart & Olson, and iMusical at the Mum Puppettheatre (115......

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......

When a performer is a standard bearer and larger than life in his or her field, it's hard to escape knowing who that person is, even if you only have a passing interest in his or her art. This Phillyist isn't particularly interested in cinema or dramatic theater, for example, but still knows who Orson Welles and John Barrymore are, if only vaguely. Similarly, one cannot be familiar even in passing with modern dance and......

Mostly what we have for you this morning are election results from all around the area: municipal elections for Bucks County and Montgomery County, School Board elections for Montgomery County, ballot questions in Bucks, and the various suburban races. And of course, as expected, Nutter's position as Mayor has been made official. The Daily News has some more details on John Lewis' flight from police and his eventual capture, and the Inquirer has the......

Hey, it's election day! And what with the Mayor's race being a foregone conclusion and everything, the interesting stuff is happening in the fight for two seats on the state Supreme Court. The search for John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of Officer Chuck Cassidy, is over. Police apprehended him at a homeless shelter in Miami at 7AM. They tracked him down after learning that a relative had bought a bus ticket to......

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......