Playlists
Blood donations benefit student
Yesterday was Tara McCafferty's 20th birthday. A proud Phi Sigma Sigma sister, not only is the College sophomore the exuberant promotions co-director of campus radio station WQHS -- a position she shares with fellow Phi Sig sister and roommate Maria Leonetti -- but she is also an aspiring artist. "She's a very good friend and ... just a lot of fun to be around," says Leonetti, also a College sophomore. However, this semester McCafferty has taken a leave of absence as she fights an ongoing battle for survival. McCafferty suffers from paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria -- a rare blood disease commonly referred to as PNH. In her honor, McCafferty's Phi Sig sisters at Drexel's Beta Rho and Penn's Nu chapters organized a blood drive at Drexel University yesterday, aiming to collect a minimum of 60 pints in a concerted effort to save McCafferty and others in need of blood transfusions. "We had a great turnout," says Phi Sig Philanthropy Chairwoman of the Beta Rho chapter Ashley Bryan, noting that approximately 60 of the 85 participants were able to donate blood. "People such as myself weren't able to donate because my iron wasn't high enough," the Drexel junior continues. Nonetheless, Bryan believes that Phi Sig's 60-pint goal was attained. All O-positive blood collected will be donated directly to McCafferty, while blood of other types will be donated to the Red Cross. Monetary donations are also being sought to help pay for a future bone marrow transplant for McCafferty -- an operation costing up to $400,000 that would be therapeutic for her condition, according to Leonetti. PNH -- a disease in which red blood cells are intermittently destroyed in circulation -- can cause severe anemia in affected patients, who sometimes need blood transfusions to correct the condition, according to Penn Department of Medicine Chairman Andrew Schafer.
Yarn!!!!
Knitting is back. Women who burned their bras in the '70s now join knitting circles; the knitting guidebook Stitch 'N Bitch sells out at Urban Outfitters.
Mmm, beer!
If you're walking on Antique Row and blink when you reach 10th Street, you just might miss the little nondescript convenience store on the corner.
Guides
4 Play Thursdays The Five Spot 5 S. Bank St. Thursdays, 10 p.m., $5 (215) 574-0070 www.thefivespot.com I've actually been to this mess, and it's a sad wannabe affair.
Penn's First Knight
Jon Lubin, a College junior double majoring in Economics and Classical Studies, is surely not your typical student.
Mommy, Buy Me A Commodore 64
If your parents fed you Nintendo for breakfast, then this is one program you need to see. Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession highlights how nerds from across the world built up the video game industry from the creation of Pong in 1972, to the current gaming industry, valued at over 20 billion dollars. Hosted by pro-skateboard champion and video game star Tony Hawk, viewers are taken on a journey back to when games were played on old systems like the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64 and the Colecovision. In more recent years, larger corporations like Sony and Microsoft have broken into the market by capitalizing on the untapped resource of the Internet with the PlayStation and the Xbox.
R-Rated Pornography
We're all relatively acquainted with the slew of coming-of-age teen comedies wherein implausibly attractive high school students overcome the bounds of social status, find love and provide a fortune cookie-sized moral to the tune of "Teenage Wasteland." The recipe works, though it usually makes for movies so saccharine that diabetics crumple to the floor of America's movie theaters.
Lousy Hipsters
The other night I was drunkenly messaging people on Facebook, listening to some Pixies and wildly vomiting into my trash can, when it suddenly occurred to me that I don't get the term 'hipster.' Does anybody really know what this word means?
It's good to be the king
Street put Jeffery Slick's expertise to the test. After getting Slick's professional opinion on six very different beers, ex-frat boy and our esteemed editor-in-chief Alex Koppelman weighed in with his thoughts on a six-pack we bought with Daily Pennsylvanian money.
What to Wear - Thongs
After being immortalized in a Sisqo classic, ass-flossing is no longer for drag queens and women of the night.
The People's Interview
What happened last night [at Wrestlemania]? We got beat. I had a blast last night. It was a lot of fun, it was cool.
What if we all did have flying bicycles?
Dave Scher wishes people would dance at shows like they used to. One half of the duo that makes up California-based All Night Radio, Scher remembers his upbringing in Long Beach, California as a time when people danced at shows.
Editors' picks
Tami Fertig: The Magnetic Fields Get Lost Lest we forget, Magnetic Fields mastermind Stephin Merritt was making records long before 69 Love Songs. That one was okay, but c'mon.
Priority: Beer
Cheap beer is key: Locust Bar 235 S. 10th St. (215) 627-8550 Cheap beer, cheap food, cheap atmosphere.
Go directly to Hell
There are things out there that go bump in the night," quips Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt). "We are the ones who bump back." No, this isn't your average weekend-drunken-sorority-girl- hook-up; it's Guillermo del Toro's above average comic-to-movie film Hellboy. Mix two parts X-Men, two parts Men In Black technology and a sprinkle of The Hulk's big buff looks, and you have the recipe that not only looks good but doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth. Based on Mike Mignola's comic book series, Hellboy opens in 1944 as the Nazis, led by Grigori Rasputin, attempt to open a portal to another dimension.
Commercials suck
In a freakish turn of events, seven of our best TV shows on DVD begin with the letters S or F. Despite such great odds, Saved by the Bell and Farscape didn't make the cut, but 10 other great television shows did.
Anal beads? Yes, Please
Upon entrance to this tucked-away Old City boutique, one is instantly struck by an unlikely collision of class and flash.
Albums
Lou Reed Animal Serenade Warner Brothers Lou Reed's 5,000th live album, Animal Serenade, shows that the 62-year-old legend can still put on a great show.
Conspiracy theories
Jazz has long subsisted as an underground music -- an esoteric, impervious art form sheltered from consumer politics.
