Dear Philadelphia: I have lived here now for nearly six years. I made it through four and a half without buying pepper spray, and only acquired one from a friend when a string of sexual assaults last fall were a little too close to home. It remains attached to my keychain, except for when it isn't: before shows at the Electric Factory or TLA, I make sure to detach it and leave it somewhere......

It's nasty out, but don't let the weather keep you from exploring all that this city's artisans and art curators have to offer! Take, for instance, the special First Friday event the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is throwing in honor of their new (aforementioned) Cecilia Beaux American Figure Painter exhibition, starting at 5PM. It's the first chance that Philadelphians will have to see the exhibit, plus, there will be live music and free food.......

Even if it wasn’t one of your New Year’s resolutions, moving around is never a bad idea. One of the big problems we have is gym memberships can be expensive, and frankly we have such issues with commitment that getting locked into anything for a year is a frightening prospect. So we thought we’d look around for some cheap, noncommittal ways to get active; free is best, but the occasional class shouldn’t break the bank.......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY On the Highwire Tonight: Fire Museum Records presents MaryClare Brzytwa, Dominique Leone, and Ashley Deekus at Highwire Gallery (2040 Frankford Ave.), 8PM. $5 The Other New Wave: Screening of Francois Truffaut’s 1959 The 400 Blows at Molly’s Bookstore (1010 S. 9th), 7PM. Free Oh the Drama: The Drama Club, The Grundles, The Peace Creeps, and The Miners at Grape Street (4100 Main St.), 8PM. $10 We'll Remember:......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Friday: Art Opening: Opening reception for Evidence, an exhibit of local photographers Natalie McDonald, Ellen Rosenberg, and Rachelle Lee Smith, at the William Way Community Center (1315 Spruce), 6-8PM. Free Leave the Glass House at Home: Marc Silver and The Stonethrowers bring their acoustic bluegrass and roots music to Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd), 7PM. $10 Geraldine Brooks: Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Geraldine Brooks reads from her new......

Walking down Broad Street to the Allegheny stop one evening, Phillyist was deep in conversation about the psychology of cities. Discussing the El, when it is actually an El, one person remarked “No wonder people get depressed in Kensington, they can’t see the sun!” Philadelphia based artist Edward Epstein might agree. His new site-specific installation, City Without Expressways, presented by InLiquid.com at the Crane Arts Building, looks at the ways in which the building......

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! Wherever you stand on the “Putting Christ Back in Christmas” issue, the simple fact of the matter is that I’m a Jew who loves Christmas. I can easily chalk that up to the......

I will admit that I am a faster walker than most. This fact can probably be attributed to two reasons: 1) the faithful consumption of four cans of Dr. Pepper per day and 2) a clear aversion to doing anything on my lunch break other than surfing the Internet and staining my khakis horrifically from my work desk. So maybe I am more inclined to see some Philadelphians’ funeral dirge-ian way of moving through the......

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......

Over the weekend, I managed to find myself in more than a few pubic restrooms. Most public restrooms you'll see contain those large plastic toilet paper dispensers with the giant rolls of abrasive, rough toilet paper therein. But once in a while, you'll find yourself in a homier public bathroom that uses real toilet paper on the kind of holder you might find in your own personal bathroom. Walking into one such bathroom last......

Walking into the Wilma Theater's transformed auditorium, draped in white fabric with cardboard chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, all drawn aside and covered in artificial cobwebs, it's impossible not to feel completely immersed in the world of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, thanks equally to set designer Robert Pyzocha, costume designer Janus Stefanowicz, and lighting designer Jerold R. Forsyth. Soon enough, you'll discover that it's intentional: you feel a part of the play because you are.......

Walking to work through Love Park today, we noticed that the fountain was off and the water had been dyed a dark shade of red (as opposed to October/Breast Cancer Awareness Month pink). A few people were milling about, installing caution tape around the perimeter of the fountain. We decided to investigate. Upon closer inspection (and by closer inspection, we mean we walked toward the fountain and read the tape), we saw that the caution......

All the way from Glasgow, UK, The Twilight Sad (myspace) bring their brand of loud guitar rock to Johnny Brenda’s tonight. With tracks like ‘Walking For Two Hours’ and ‘Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed’ you’ll be taken down hallways hearing echoes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai (if either produced tracks with discernible lyrics). These four blokes combine effects pedals, tape loops from old films, guitar, bass, toy keyboards, saws and Voltron action......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Travelin' Dogs Now that we're into the swing of summer and so many people are hitting the road, I figured a basic post on traveling with pets would be fitting. I mean, so many people take their dogs on vacation now and even though basic pet traveling tips seem like common sense, we can get caught up in the excitement and forget......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love The Thread & Mattress Fetish It will come as no surprise, I'm sure, that very often in my dog walking experience I've come across dogs that shred shoes, socks, toys and really anything they can sink their teeth into. But, I never really came across dogs that were into thread and mattresses. Last year, though, there was this one dog I walked......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Chill Dogs "I like your dog," she said. "She isn't like most Chihuahua’s. She's chill. That's cool." This laid back artsy girl with a flapper-like hair cut, piercing blue eyes and a blue, cotton dress was standing behind the counter at an extremely chill cafe that serves iced coffee and various cafe accoutrements while paying my friend and his dog, Hannah, the......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Water Bowl Blues So, while hanging out at Seger Run—the dog run down behind the Superfresh around 10th and South—I discovered a whole new truth to the saying, “You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink.” Here’s the story: I walk into Seger Run with this dog that I’m dog sitting for the summer, Murphy. Murphy......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Most of us dog walkers will leave notes for owners to let them know we showed up and to give owners some insight as to what went on during the walk. After writing so many of the same kinds of notes, we start to get creative. Here's a note I wrote describing one dog's walking adventure: The Rat and the Mysterious Goo......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Dog Custody Friday night in Fishtown, I met a friend of a friend who joked about losing two dogs in two previously unsuccessful relationships. “And I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I didn’t cheat on my girlfriends, treat them like shit or anything and they wind up with the dogs.” He’s over it, but hasn’t wanted to get a new dog......

Walking into the Clef Club on Saturday, we didn't know what to expect. For us, it was a totally new venue, totally new genre. Our forays into jazz music have extended deeper and deeper, with the freest being David Torn and his latest, Prezens. It was our first avant garde show and we were psyched that our companion was a jazz musician, there to light our way in case we got lost. Opening the show......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love A couple of months ago, I posted a column that touched on the issue of pets becoming our kids, so it only seems fair to say that, while millions of mothers will be receiving gifts and words of thanks from their sons and daughters, a million more folks will be celebrating the day as being a parent to their schnauzers, bull dogs,......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Dancing Dogs?! Forget about all the hoopla surrounding Dancing with the Stars, according to PetPlace.com, dog lovers are signing up to learn how to dance with their dogs. Sound crazy? Not to a bunch of folks who want to participate in a sport called Canine Freestyle—an activity in which dog and owner move in tandem through a set of choreographed steps to......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love This is a different kind of post today because it's an acual note that I left for an owner for whom I dog- and house-sat for a weekend. It's a basic courtesy for dog walkers to leave notes for owners, even if they walk someone's dog every single day. It's just a way to let them know you were really there. Maybe,......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Horn Dogs A couple weeks ago a new friend of mine recalled a tragic memory. She said every time she visited one of her old friends’ houses she was accosted and, as she said somewhat jokingly, “raped” by the friend’s German shepherd. It’s a common problem: overly-excited hounds who have no social graces whatsoever and cannot control their, well, urges. So, I......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Dogs in Film Seeing as how there is so much coverage of the Philly Film Festival going on right now, and seeing as how so many dog walkers search for yet another interesting topic to discuss with their peers at the local parks, I figured, hey, why not compile a list of dogs in film. From this list, all dog owners and......

Walking down Walnut this past Monday, on my way to see Wholetrain, I stopped at the light at 11th Street. There were two men across the street from me, who looked like they'd been in the same place for a while. One seemed considerably happier about this than the other. The jollier of the two was an older gentleman with a long grey beard, who was wearing a black leather bomber jacket and a giant......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love No Bones about It Because pet food recalls continue to expand, I simply could not ignore the issue and decided to recap what’s been going on just so all dog owners out there have yet another resource to ensure that their dogs and cats are safe. This whole mess has been going on for weeks and one wonders when it all will......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... Pet Casting Every once in a while I’ll visit weather.com to check on temperatures for the area. Sometimes my server is slow and because that weather site is so robust with graphics, text and so many other bells and whistles, it can take forever for the home page to upload. Typically, this is annoying. However, the uploading slowness brought to my attention......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... On a Short, Long, Short Leash A question about the integrity of retractable leashes came up the other day. It was amongst a group of dog walkers who, I decided, have control issues. Granted, I’m notoriously lenient—a softy, if you will, who pities the pup that suffers constant jerking by walkers utilizing conventional, double-reinforced leashes in a militant way. I’m sure there......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... Fantasy Crushes and Used Condoms Dog walkers are, in a way, akin to nannies or au pairs. We are invited into people’s homes, we are caregivers to the “kids,” we are often told, “Mi casa es su casa,” and we wind up helping ourselves to the last slice of cold pepperoni pizza in the fridge without pissing anyone off. We sometimes run......