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What: Who said you had to wait until July 4th to party? Join tU pHAce and DJ Phsh upstairs at Pub Webb for a night's worth of $2 Pabsts and $3 shots and mixes. Where: Pub Webb, 1527 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Philadelphia, PA Cost: $5 at the door | 21+

The scenic backdrop and sprawling visuals of the Himalayan Mountains set the tone for this documentary that does more than simply chronicle the secluded lives of Tibetan Buddhist monks. Director Nati Baratz takes viewers on a trip of personal discovery and an in-depth look of yet another way that humans deal with death and dying. The film introduces us to Tenzin Zapa, a Buddhist monk who gave up familial life and rejected tending fields to study under his master, Geshe La. However, after the death of Geshe La, Tenzin is left feeling completely and utterly alone, and at the age of 28 he must…

Michael Mann is a director of considerable skill and talent, but too often seems content to instead be a facilitator of excellent art direction and little more. When focused, as in The Insider he can be strikingly effective; but at his worst -- and Collateral certainly comes to mind, if not the vastly overrated Heat -- he's all about the window dressing: soulless, flashy, and as nutritionally satisfying as a Tootsie Pop. With his new gangster epic about the fall of John Dillinger, he's just about dead-smack in the middle. When we first see him, Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is shackled, in tow with…

Despite what the lyrics of the title track might insinuate, Camera Obscura’s “maudlin career” hasn’t come to an end. Far from it: the Glaswegian band still base their lyrical travails around dusty libraries, love, and longing. What has changed, however, is the music. There’s a maturity present on this, their fourth album, that coalesces with the group’s established sound to produce a record that’s positively muscular in comparison to their prior work. This is due mainly to the lush string arrangements that accentuate several songs as well as front…

The female desire to be beautiful transcends language, culture and geography. Some of the most extravagant and outrageous global beauty treatments have made their way to America and show no sign of fading away. Below are some of the more outrageous methods still very much in practice today.  Japanese Nightingale Poo         Geishas and Kabuki actors discovered nightingale droppings removed make-up and brightened and healed tired skin. Guanine, a positive component in the excretion, conditions the skin, leaving it with a pearly tone. At Shizuka New York Day Spa, the…

What: Who said you had to wait until July 4th to party? Join tU pHAce and DJ Phsh upstairs at Pub Webb for a night's worth of $2 Pabsts and $3 shots and mixes. Where: Pub Webb, 1527 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Philadelphia, PA Cost: $5 at the door | 21+

The scenic backdrop and sprawling visuals of the Himalayan Mountains set the tone for this documentary that does more than simply chronicle the secluded lives of Tibetan Buddhist monks. Director Nati Baratz takes viewers on a trip of personal discovery and an in-depth look of yet another way that humans deal with death and dying. The film introduces us to Tenzin Zapa, a Buddhist monk who gave up familial life and rejected tending fields to study under his master, Geshe La. However, after the death of Geshe La, Tenzin is left feeling completely and utterly alone, and at the age of 28 he must…

Michael Mann is a director of considerable skill and talent, but too often seems content to instead be a facilitator of excellent art direction and little more. When focused, as in The Insider he can be strikingly effective; but at his worst -- and Collateral certainly comes to mind, if not the vastly overrated Heat -- he's all about the window dressing: soulless, flashy, and as nutritionally satisfying as a Tootsie Pop. With his new gangster epic about the fall of John Dillinger, he's just about dead-smack in the middle. When we first see him, Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is shackled, in tow with…

Despite what the lyrics of the title track might insinuate, Camera Obscura’s “maudlin career” hasn’t come to an end. Far from it: the Glaswegian band still base their lyrical travails around dusty libraries, love, and longing. What has changed, however, is the music. There’s a maturity present on this, their fourth album, that coalesces with the group’s established sound to produce a record that’s positively muscular in comparison to their prior work. This is due mainly to the lush string arrangements that accentuate several songs as well as front…

The female desire to be beautiful transcends language, culture and geography. Some of the most extravagant and outrageous global beauty treatments have made their way to America and show no sign of fading away. Below are some of the more outrageous methods still very much in practice today.  Japanese Nightingale Poo         Geishas and Kabuki actors discovered nightingale droppings removed make-up and brightened and healed tired skin. Guanine, a positive component in the excretion, conditions the skin, leaving it with a pearly tone. At Shizuka New York Day Spa, the…