The bottom line increasingly influences what is covered and how it is covered. This is the drama of being a journalist these days: What can we afford to report? Where should we focus our resources?

"I don't have [Michael Nutter] here, unfortunately," I respond to Ms. Sylvia, "but I'm not necessarily asking about the new mayor. What about the city's future? Can you tell that?"

Standing in line at a Food Lion recently, I found myself hungering for the predictions that the Weekly World News used to make around New Year's. Like that Britney's kid sister will give birth to Bat Boy. Or that the president will be abducted by aliens.

I'm not sure that's why you don't think your whiteness is a defining characteristic. | Having each song directly relate to a current event opened up the audience's eyes. | Philadelphians should be embarrassed and Geno's should be ashamed.

Philadelphia's incoming police commissioner is a veteran cop who looks just as comfortable chatting up President Bush as he does making routine traffic stops.

In: Joe Grace | Out: Mayor Street | In: State Sen. Vince Fumo | Out: Change candidates with no agenda other than change | In: The Campaign Group | Out: PACleanSweep...

Until this year, all I knew about The Lawrence Welk Show was that my grandma, and many grandmas, loved it. | Oranges, grapefruit, pomegranate juice, green tea, dark chocolate — I make sure I eat these almost every meal, or in between. | From magicians, side shows and acrobats to the saucy ladies of burlesque and cabaret shows, this era continually captures my imagination. | Their brooding, fucked-up proto-techno jams are perfect for headphones at home but also kill on the dancefloor.

Not in the mood for a cannibalism musical or any of the season's other strangely downbeat cinematic releases? The Art Museum has more shows than a multiplex, and every one is suitable for kids.

Sometimes adults forget that the most exciting characters in works for children are also the scariest. So it is with the Arden Theatre Co.'s Sleeping Beauty.

exhibit (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION) These days, a racy photograph is the cover of Maxim. But just how intimate do you feel toward a

Only a bit of cunning, some timely kindness from strangers and pure, random luck keeps the kid from dying in the desert like so many others. There's heartbreak and tragedy on every page — just when you think things can't get much worse for the weary refugees, a lion or a helicopter appear from nowhere.

From early works like Dog Boy, Burns has always had a toe in the campy excesses of 1950s horror, as well as its more disturbing underpinnings, but with Black Hole, he divests himself of any ironic distance.

It all happened so fast. It's a phrase often uttered by hapless mugging victims too shaken to provide an accurate physical description of their assailants. But it's also an apt phrase for describing how I felt trudging out of AVP:R, a movie so overrun with misleading setups and poor lighting that I checked for my wallet on the way out.

They may now be recording and touring as Nerissa & Katryna Nields, but on their latest, Sister Holler, the singing siblings are joined by most of their old collaborators

Their brevity has earned Paint It Black a fair amount of teasing in these pages, but really, we're just impressed.

If you like old-school garage punk with the gunk ladled on hot and thick, this whole show will make you plotz.

Start the musical new year with keyboard fireworks. Several seasons ago, an up-and-coming New York-based pianist named Jeremy Denk played the almost unheard Piano Sonata by the America master Elliott Carter. People were stunned.

Chef's Table at Iron Hill Brewery | Tajima Wagyu Beef at Barclay Prime | Philadelphia Brewing Co. Gets Going | Guest Chef Tasting with Michael Solomonov at Snackbar

1 Figs | 2 Ansill | 3 DiBruno Bros. | 4 Astral Plane Millennium | 5 Xochitl

Jay McCarroll: I was so wrapped up in everything going on around me that I was becoming unfocused on my work, which is my livelihood and my passion. So I got the hell out. Around the same time a teaching position opened up at Philadelphia University and I jumped at the opportunity.

Thu., Jan. 10, 7-9 p.m., free, National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, Fifth and Arch streets, 215-409-6600, aclu.org/closeguantanamo Jan. 11 marks the six-year anniversary of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Animal Ambassador | MLK Jr. Day | Dignity Housing After-School Program | Episodic Ambassador | Fresh Direct

"We like contemporary, new trends and also messages with meanings."