"You people have a real hard-on for the Eagles."

"The money's not there, and soon Ed Rendell won't be, either."

At that moment — aha! — I understood the French paradox of getting the most from the least — and being richer and smarter for it.

Totemic art for contemporary artists is usually even more personal: self-chosen and particular to an individual. | Their clothing is mostly crumpled and casual but decidedly trendy. Of course — they're teenagers!

We walk away heads swimming with ideas, still digesting the play's profound emotional impact.

Frank X is one of Philadelphia's most distinguished actors — and the Arden is one of our finest theaters. Yet amazingly, The History Boys marks their first collaboration.

The list of really good sex comedies is short, and it doesn't include The First Day of School, which, true to its title, feels like an assignment dispatched in haste by an inexperienced writer.

Anne Marble Caramanico's dreamy acrylic paintings and monotype prints could be anything: people, landscape or even light itself.

While the play explores relationships, it also demands climbing's physical challenges.

Pennsylvania Ballet opens its 46th season with a traditional bow in the direction of ballet genius and company godfather George Balanchine.

A "systematizer," Bollin stumbles over his need to document his deeds while pestered by eerily amoral teens who tease him and take his stuff.

It'd been six years since Alice in Chains had released an album; it's taken the surviving members seven more to make Black Gives Way to Blue, with William DuVall taking the mic.

Alan Palomo must have dragged a crate of Daft Punk and OMD 12-inches from the attic, popped them on the turntable and had a moment of inspiration.

When the three members of Peeesseye get together, they speak a strange vocabulary all their own.

Leaving on a Mayday boasts a curiously sparse, percussive sheen, much sharper than your average tasteful Nordic mopefest.

Arturo Stable is a prime example of how the influence of his native Cuba is being woven into a far more colorful tapestry than ever before.

Their brand-new Brand New Eyes offers another dozen barnstormers, all primed to incite.

He still plays Bach and Brahms, but is committed to, as he puts it, "seeing music thrive," cultivating new composers and new audiences at coffeehouses and bars.

"I'll put it this way: Most comedians are decent people. I enjoy hanging with these guys. But there've been guys who weren't nice to me."

Whether wrapped all the way around the neck or split, ruffles frame the face and add dramatic volume that makes the waist appear smaller. Maren Reese, 29, marries these classic principles with modern technique in her company Letau Designs' drawstring scarf, available in more than 125 fabrics, including silk and cashmere.

For Spiral Q's Peoplehood Parade, now in its 10th year, diverse communities come together to create massive folk art-inspired puppets.

The gallery is hosting a BYOTY ("bring your own table, yo") book fair, featuring more than 25 vendors selling books written backward, zines, self-published poetry and psychedelic art books — all for about $5.

Jean-Baptiste Regnard is bringing his Squidfire craft show, usually based in Baltimore, to this brotherly-lovin' city.

Improv comedian Jill Bernard's seven-year-old show, in which she accompanies herself on a blue plastic drum machine, is goofy as hell.

Craving an authentic ink experience? The Independent Seaport Museum is hosting a tattoo festival onboard the Landmark Cruiser Olympia.