Headlong Dance Theater

A few years back I lost my favorite dance company, Moxie. I couldn't find another company I liked as much. A dancer friend asked what theater I liked. I said Pig Iron. "Oh," she said. "That's easy. Try Headlong Dance." After I saw them at The nEW Festival last spring, I walked around for days saying, "You know how you see live performances knowing that a lot of them are going to be kind of weak but when they're good it makes it all worth it? Well, I could now justify, like, two effing years of crappy live performances. Even if nothing comes down the line for a long, long time, I just saw something truly great." I haven't missed one of their free performances at First Friday since.

Mary J. Blige

I'm obsessed with Mary J. Blige's searing cover of U2's "One." So I have an obsession for the black divas, that's not unexpected, but Mary is truly exceptional. She is always so fiercely engaged, and takes up a lot of space (she and Aretha had to stand really far apart on the Divas Live TV special). She hits these notes that take my breath away. It begins with Bono singing it himself and then Mary's voice starts creeping in. He does the vocal equivalent of taking a gentlemanly step back. She then takes the song and rips into it ravenously. And she makes it her own. The words are exactly as Bono and U2 wrote them but have this new resonance, and the song is reborn.

House of Cosbys

I can't stop thinking about House of Cosbys. It's one of those things where words cannot do it justice. But I'll try. A few smart-asses make a cartoon about a guy who loves the Cos so much he builds a cloning machine and ends up making dozens of Bill Cosbys. There's April Fool's Cosby and Bathtub Cosby and Country Music Cosby, and wacky hijinks commence via four, 5-minute animated segments. The real Cos did not like this development at all, so before we could get to the stunning conclusion his lawyers put a stop to the fun. So now, if you are like me, you have to spread the love through bootleg video Web sites. Google "House of Cosby" and join the movement.

Center City Pretzel Co. Inc.

I can't get enough of the fine, piping-hot twists of salted dough available at Center City Pretzel Co. Inc. at 816 Washington Ave. in South Philly. There is nothing quite like waiting outside their little bunker in a cold car on an icy night for the door to open to the public at 11:45 p.m. As far as their variety ... well, there is none. It's a goddamn pretzel, available cheap and in bulk. The proprietor will unhygenically grab your pretzel(s) with his bare hands, which just held the remains of his moist cigar. This only adds to the flavor. And yet, despite all obsessive-compulsive tendencies, I will still put that fetid knot in my mouth. And like it.