The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you. Photographs of real places with video game characters added. We like! (Via) Wired takes a closer look at the world's most powerful laser, recently built and turned on at the University of Texas at Austin. It's 2,000 times more powerful than all the power plants in the United States and the builders hope to use it to recreate astronomical phenomena like......

Tonight is a surprisingly robust Tuesday night. We're fairly speechless about the breadth and depth of our trio of events for the evening. Or we are just running out of witticisms to pepper throughout our intros. MINUS THE BEAR AT THE FILLMORE Why? Because they're awesome and you're not. Well, maybe you are (after all, you certainly have excellent taste in blogs), but we bet you haven't played the Fillmore (yeah, we know it's......

What is it about First Fridays that makes the weather come? It really does seem like every fourth Friday, the weather turns to crap, just in time to descend on art-loving urban hipsters traveling from gallery to gallery to imbibe free wine. If we feel like trading the Film Festival for First Friday, here's where we'll be imbibing: Pinot Boutique, an Old City shop that could only be improved upon if Pennsylvania laws allowed......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Come With Suggestions: Local improv Tongue and Groove try out a new format at the Shubin Theatre (407 Bainbridge), 8PM. $10 These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things: PAWS fundraiser Wines, Canines, and Felines, a wine tasting you can bring your pets to, at Pinot (227 Market), 6-9PM. Free (10% discount on Pinot accessories, with all proceeds benefiting PAWS) While You’re Over There: Smak Parlour (219......

Pick a friggin' season. We know we talk about the weather a lot on Can't Miss This!, but we're all about getting out of the office, apartment or house and doing stuff. Hence, weather is a big deal to us. Hence, we get furious when it starts flip-flopping on us like John Kerry. Pick a stance on the important issues, Weather! Issues like temperature and wind speed, rainfall and cloud cover. These are the......

Sometimes, you wonder why it is that we don't get paid to enjoy the mild weather, relax with our loved ones or significant others, and just generally absorb the ambient goodness of life. That's what happens in heaven: you get paid to be happy. For now, though, read about some of the things going on in the city tonight. You have to pay for them, but they're worth it. ADRIAN BELEW AT WORLD CAFE......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

For this Phillyist, Friday night's Cat Power show left something to be desired. The sold out Starlight Ballroom was buzzing with anticipation as the audience waited for Chan Marshall to take the stage. Standing around waiting in the sweat-soaked heat, I found myself thinking that I wouldn't have minded the heat and the moisture and the stink so much if this were The Greatest Cat Power. Jukebox Cat Power, not so much. To me the......

It's hard figuring out what to get for the people in your life who already have everything, and so you're usually stuck at the last minute, still trying to figure out what you're buying them after the rest of the shopping is done. And here you are, four days before Christmas, stuck for ideas. Fortunately, I come from a family of procrastinators – especially when it comes to buying gifts. As a result, I've mastered......

It's time again for First Friday. What's that you say? You don't like the looks of tonight's weather forecast? Silly readers! A little cold and wet never killed anyone (well, pneumonia and tuberculosis aside, at least). And besides, all those warm bodies packed into a little art gallery, accompanied by free wine? You'll be warm for sure, in no time flat! Here are a few places where we suggest keeping dry. Before jumping on the......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Okay, so I've hated on the PLCB and state stores before. And I still think the system is very, very flawed. But once in a while, there's a surprise gem in the Chairman's Selection section. (There's also, apparently, a lot of really bad wine that they're trying to sell quickly in said section. But you take the good with the bad.) One such gem that Ross and I discovered a few months back was......

We already mentioned in an earlier post that the unconventional Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There gets released today. Although the soundtrack of the film has been out for some time, we thought we'd take this opportunity to review it - especially seeing as how it's a review copy of the album that we've been listening to and all. We're not just late on the review because we're lazy, though. There's a lot of music......

While it's definitely debatable just how "southern" my Texan heritage makes me, Texas is definitely far enough south that kids take cotillion classes where they learn to do things like waltz and set a proper table. And it's the latter that I feel the need to bring up today. You see, I've noticed an epidemic lately. Not necessarily an epidemic of people who don't know the order in which to place the water, red......

Disclaimer: This post relates to an event put on by First Person Arts, of whom Editor Jill is an employee. However, Editor Jill did not have a hand in writing or editing this post. (With the Festival going on this week, she wouldn't have time to, even if she wanted to.) A little while back, we told you about the First Person Story Tour and its colorful "mascot," the Story Tour Van. The Story Tour......

The weather's gotten colder, but First Friday still has some goodies that should get you out of your homes, apartments, and cardboard boxes. So put on your fall jacket, nip a little wine or whiskey to keep warm, and get out to First Friday for some great events. A bit north of the ordinary Old City First Friday scene, Projects Gallery in Northern Liberties is giving you not one but two exhibitions to make it......

We can't say we're entirely proud of ourselves for this, but we have to admit we're totally loving Black Fingernails, Red Wine, the third album and latest release from Australian trio Eskimo Joe (MySpace). Sure, it's pop. But it's also totally fun (one might even say irresistible), infectious, danceable pop rock with a New Wave (sometimes almost Depeche Mode-ish) flavor, and a piano often tinkling in the background. Download two of our favorite tracks off......

To my dear, darling boyfriend: There's no easy way to say this, so I guess the best thing to do would be to just come out with it: I have a new boyfriend. His name is James. Oh, don't worry. It's not your best friend James – that would be cruel to you, and besides, your best friend James has a lovely girlfriend. I wouldn't dream of coming between them. No, the James to......

Wow-ee! At ten this morning, a brand new Ben Franklin sculpture (this one by James Peniston) was unveiled at 4th and Arch Streets, bringing the total number of sculptures of the founding father in Philadelphia up to 24,367.* To celebrate, we're going to be sure we do First Friday up right this month, starting with the very special reception to welcome the newest Ben in the city. "Keys to Community": The Ben Franklin Project set......

The prime rib was cold, the asparagus was undercooked, the salad was limp, the red wine was chilled, the cosmopolitans were made from what could only have been Kool-Aid... And yet nobody seemed to care for very long. It was Philadelphia theatre's biggest night, and all those in attendance were there to celebrate, not to complain. (Well, except for us. We were okay with complaining. We were also there as critics.) The actors were......

Performances: A Twilight Performance of Spoon River Anthology (The Late Laureates of Laurel Hill ) (No Future Showtimes.) Pulling up the rear in this edition of the Phillyist Philly-Live-Fringical-of-Arts Diary series we celebrate the ultimate Halloween pre-game. Just in time for CVS' pre-pre-trick-or-treating candy fest comes a reading from the dead in a place of the dead with a cast and audience pretty close to death themselves (I jest, of course. Respect your elders kids!)......

Fresh off a thousand word treatise on how some dude recently ate potato chips while peeing in the stall next to me, I did not have the energy to write a linear story on the Eagles' Monday night debacle against the Redskins. Instead I decided to take a page out of the book of ESPN.com’s comedic genius Bill Simmons, and write about the hometown team in diary style. So to the anonymous Philly expat in......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

Sure, you can wander through art gallery after art gallery tonight. The same places you always go, with the same cheap wine you always drink. Or, you can take advantage of the fact that there's always a First Friday during the Live Arts and Fringe Festivals, and there are plenty of free or pay-what-you-can PLAF events you can hit tonight and for the next week. A few that we think sound interesting: Sonic Dances A......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Not that we don't love Old City (we do), but we figured this week, we should focus on some of the First Friday goings-on that aren't part of the typical First Friday scene. Here are a few places we might be checking out tonight – places where the crowds might even be smaller. (That means more wine for us!) First up will be the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, over in Rittenhouse, as they celebrate......

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Tuesday post only collects the early announcements, so definitely check back on Thursday for the latest ticket news. Get the Led Out House of Blues Atlantic City Fri, 10/5/07, 9PM $15-$20 On sale: Wed, 10AM, Live Nation Skillet Chameleon Club, Lancaster Fri, 8/31/07, 7PM $9.70-$12 On sale: Thu, 10AM, Ticketmaster Kings of Leon Tower Theater, Upper Darby......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Like the orchestra but hate the scene? Now you have no excuse not to get some culture. Saturday night the Philadelphia Orchestra is putting on a free neighborhood concert in Clark Park. All you have to do is bring a blanket, some friends, and a juice bottle filled with your favorite wine. Kick back and listen to world class musicians playing Chabrier's España, Bizet's Suite No. 2, from Carmen, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol, Marquez's Danzon, Barber's......

Hey there, readers! Today and tomorrow, or until my batteries die, or until I can't stand it anymore, I'll be liveblogging the First Annual BlogPhiladelphia "unconference." This post will be constantly updating throughout the day, so it's going to stay at the top of the Phillyist main index. But be sure to scroll down for the rest of our regular content, and see full liveblog after the jump! (Meanwhile, forgive us any resulting funny......