I think the most exciting thing about putting together  this year's Style Issue was how easy it was to put together. Which is not to suggest that it was easy at all.

Later this month, some 40 urban planners and engineers from many city departments will gather to plan East Falls' new waterworld.

"These things will prey upon the weakest of the weak and generally degrade our city from a world-class one to a low-road, second-rate metropolis."

Next year, Scottie Reynolds and Reggie Redding will be seniors and multiple-year starters. Each will start the season in their age-appropriate roles as team leaders, knowing exactly what it takes to get to the Final Four. Better still, they'll have help getting there.

Ian Peakes plays a movie-studio cartoonist who wants to move beyond his money-making mien to create delirious animation set to classical scores, while Scott Greer's business-brother must stay grounded for the sake of the film company, his brother's fragile genius and his own sense of self-worth. For playwright Bruce Graham, it all hits close to home.

Rather than watch ex-Fox 29er Gerald Kolpan rhapsodize cattily about Philly pop culturalism, hear the veteran newsman richly imagine what area socialite-turned-Sundance Kid babe Etta Place's life might've been like.

In "Un-Nature," the artists have focused on the potential ugliness that can emerge when nature clashes with man and technology, creating a new aesthetic that curator Alex Gartelmann calls "grotesque Romanticism."

Ashraf will have to play an Islamic terrorist, complete with fundamentalist values and an AK-47. Does he honor his heritage or go for the cash grab?

"If you fall in love with something, get it or forever regret it."

In Zornitsa Stoyanova's work even the most concrete ideas get muddied and abstracted. Her new work, however, reduces language itself to gibberish.

As the title might suggest, the selection emphasizes painting, but "Ink" also includes most permutations of contemporary art: assemblage, photography, installation, sculpture, interactive art and video.

"Unless I totally screw up a play, it stands a very good chance of getting at least one production. Movies, who knows? But if I start something, I finish it."

Through April 11, $30, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824, balletx.org

"I Don't Know" is effective for the same reason Jenny Holzer's Truisms have had staying power: It means both nothing and anything.

Enchanted Islands is a spastic rock album whose whip-smart riffs and hip-shaking beats will make you think of Brit-pop.

It's no coincidence that, as pop trends skewed younger, country's choruses got bigger, gradually reaching a point at which there was no real difference between Keith Richards and Keith Urban.

Over nervous guitar strings and pulsing snare drums, she unleashes her fury across three counties, leaving a trail of corpses and orphans and twisted steel.

After a decade in the American Analog Set, Andrew Kenny is gradually discovering his pulse.

Robyn Hitchcock's show with the Venue 3 won't be like any Hitchcock show you've seen before.

Amy Ray's best lyrics are strikingly specific, whether she's lamenting dead friends or military misadventures.

Percussionist Kevin Norton is hard to place; his breakthrough gig was with legendary bassist Milt Hinton, but after graduating from the Manhattan School of Music he kept company mostly with members of NYC's downtown scene.

Sweetheart punks Comet Gain have been thinking up intellectual lo-fi since the early '90s.

New Lunch Menu at Chifa | Free coffee at Café Loftus | La Famigla's New Chef and Spring Tasting Menu | Dine Out Japan | Pita Pit's Half-Price Pitas

Mon., April 13, 7:30 p.m., $10, Doc Watson's Pub, 216 S. 11th St., 215-922-3427, stachebashevent.com

Tue., April 14, 7 p.m., $5-$10, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, scribe.org

Wed., April 15, 6 p.m., free, Historical Society of Philadelphia, 1300 Locust St., 215-732-6200, hsp.org

Sun., April 12, 6 p.m., pay as you go, begins at Tattooed Mom, 530 South St., 215-238-9880, phillyzombiecrawl.com

Comedy show Fri.-Sat., April 10-11, 10 p.m, and Sun., April 12, 7 p.m., $15; workshops Sat., April 11, 2-6 p.m. (beginners), and Sun., April 12, 2-6 p.m. (master class), $75; Shubin Theatre, 407 Bainbridge St., 267-233-1556, phillyimprovtheater.com

Thu., April 9, 7 p.m., free, Wooden Shoe Books, 508 S. Fifth St., 215-413-0999, woodenshoebooks.com; Fri., April 10, 7:30 pm, free, A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave., 215-727-0882, the-aspace.org