Outside the Bubble

The first Friday of every month in Philadelphia is typically celebrated with gallery openings, restaurant specials, musical performances and  superb sales. Check out some of the special opportunities this weekend to enoy all that Philadelphia has to offer. SHOPPING Sirens Boutique, Scarlett Alley, Arcadia Boutique Enjoy sales and snacks this Friday at some of Philadelphia’s  [...]

Dance-pop duo Disclosure clearly knows what they’re doing.  The pair has successfully integrated the tropes of the UK’s underground dance music into poppier structures, allowing the band to break into the UK’s top-40 charts and set them on the precipice U.S. of omnipresence.  But as the electronic production duo brought their live act to Philadelphia’s [...]

BAM. That’s the feeling I got after watching the opening number of Broadway’s smash-hit musical “American Idiot,” performed this week (through Sunday February 17th) at the Merriam Theater. BAM. Like, what just happened. Like, that was awesome. If there ever was a sensationalist musical, this is it. I don’t mean sensational as in it was [...]

Early in The xx’s Sunday set at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory, Romy Madley Croft, the band’s guitarist and female vocalist paused between songs to say, “We finally made it.” She was referring to the cancelation of the band’s last Philadelphia performance during October’s Hurricane Sandy, but as the show continued, it was impossible not to see that [...]

The plot of the musical “Love Story” is as basic and common as one could imagine. Rich boy meets poor girl. They fall madly in love and sacrifice dreams for each other. Girl dies. Curtain falls. There’s a reason that this plot is used so often, though: it works. “Love Story”, the brainchild of Erich [...]

Tom Bullamore opened his talk at Haverford College this Monday with an apology to audience members who may have recently lost a loved one. He then jumped immediately into the heart of “Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry: Obituaries to Die For,” a rolicking journey through the history of the obituary from its 17th century [...]

The absurdist theater group “Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium” (IRC) put on “Ivona: Princess of Burgundia,” directed by Tina Brock, as part of the Philly Fringe Festival, which ended this past Sunday.Anyone on campus last semester might recognize the bizarre title. Production Ensemble, a spring semester theater course whose function is putting on a play, produced “Ivona, [...]

As the last strains of the Star-Spangled Banner lingered over the Olympic stadium, the United States 200-meter dash medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos were met with a salvo of jeering.They stood with their heads bowed, black-gloved fists extended upwards in a symbol of solidarity with the Black Power movement sweeping through the states. Their [...]

In the hyper-commercialized world of today, nearly every museum that visitors enter thrusts useless but appealing merchandise into their patrons’ faces, giving them more opportunities than they could possibly want or afford to buy artsy trinkets. Museums no longer consist of an admissions desk, a bathroom and galleries; now it would feel unusual, a refreshing [...]

 “I’m up in the woods, I’m down on my mind.” The first words Justin Vernon, lead singer and founder of Bon Iver, uttered on a cool Sunday night at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. These words are not found on For Emma, Forever Ago — the almost mythical début Vernon recorded during one “good winter” [...]