Music on the Mall – Free this Thursday

Music on the Mall, the city’s free summer concert series, which runs the first Thursday of each month, concludes this week with a special presentation of World Music on August 6. The event will feature the stylings of Paprika, a Brazilian-influenced girl group, from 6 to 7 pm and Casplash, a Carribean band, from 7 to 8. So put on your boogie shoes and come on out to Independence Mall.

And save this date – on September 3, the series will close out the season with a “Battle of the School Bands” right before the first bell rings. Find more info here.

It’s Our B-Day Party – And You’re All Invited

When most people think of Philadelphia, they think of history. The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, 1776 and the Fourth of July, right? Well, it’s that time of year again, and Philly is dressed up in red, white and blue for the holiday. So much to do….and all for so little money!

Most of the events come under the “Sunoco Welcome America” Banner.” The “Welcome America” festivities have gone on for a number of years now, and people keep coming back for more, because each year the party gets bigger and better. I’ll be covering some of the events in posts later on, but I want to focus on the showstopper event right now – that’s the Party on the Parkway held on the Fourth beginning at noon.

Okay, deep breath, ’cause there’s a lot to cover. On the Parkway there will be three stages – the Kids’ Stage (noon-6:45), the Multi-Cultural Stage (noon-7:15), and the Sound of Philadelphia stage (3-6). The names are pretty self-explanatory and the concert schedules can be found here. Let me just say that there will be a diversity of good music up and down the Parkway (and, of course, good food and other fun activities too!).

The evening closes with the largest free concert in the country – just fitting for the national birthday party. This year’s headliner at the “Life, Liberty and You” concert is pop-rock sensation Sheryl Crow, she of “All I Wanna Do” and “If It Makes You Happy” fame. And to top off the celebration, the Philly skyline will be set ablaze in sparkles, thanks to one of the best fireworks displays in the country.

Lincoln 200 Birthday Festival – free this weekend!

Okay, so as all good state workers know, Lincoln’s birthday is really in February (February 12, to be exact). But heck, we’re heavy duty celebrating in Philly this weekend, so why not some applause for honest Abe – particularly since he would have been 200 this year?

Lincoln200, Abraham Lincoln’s 200 birthday bash will be held from July 2 through the 5 on Independence Mall. Tomorrow night’s festivities, which include a grand opening party and ribbon cutting, get started at 4 and continue through 9 pm. Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s activities will run from 9 am to 6 pm, and will highlight President Lincoln’s close ties to Philadelphia, including our state’s pivotal role in preserving the union during the Civil War.

But it’s a party, not just a history lesson, so look for some really cool interactive features, including Lincoln for Kids, Green-Linc, Lincoln Logs and iLincoln, as well as an arts and crafts marketplace. Proceeds of the festival will be donated to veterans and military families – and admission is free! – so come on down and take part in this celebration!

Fast Five for Free Friday

Hey you guys!

Since we’re now headed into the summer and good weather, I know you’ll want to be out and about more. How can you do that and keep a reign on your cash flow?

Well, let me present the OnTheCheap solution for this common dilemma – the Fast Five For Free Friday. (See, Mrs. Ackerman, I wasn’t sleeping through that lesson on alliteration!) Every Friday I’ll shoot off a quick list of things you can do that weekend for free…so just check back when you have some time on your hands, m’kay?

Without further ado, here’s the first list of Five For Free.  And according to the Weather Channel, all signals point to a beautiful weekend. Go enjoy – without busting the budget.

*Speaking of Peace: A Festival of the Arts – What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding? Find out through the photo essays, storytelling and music at this festival, presented by the Frazer Mennonite Church
in Frazer, PA. Tomorrow, 1-7 pm. Call 610-644-3397 or check the web site for details.

* Ruby’s Walk Across America – Reality star Ruby Gettinger’s anti-obesity walk kicks off in Philly (just in time for swimsuit season, eh?).  Meet Ruby and the other walkers at Lloyd Hall, One Boathouse Row, from 8 am to 2 pm.

* Lincoln High School Glory Days – Ah, nostalgia! Apparently Lincoln High School is scheduled for demolition – but not before one last blow-out celebration. Flea markets, music, tours, games and memorabilia will mark the goodbyes from 8 am to 2 pm tomorrow. 3201 Ryan Avenue; 215-335-5653.

* ARTspiration! – Billed as a free community arts festival for the whole family, this event will be held at the Fleisher Art Memorial from 10-4 on Sunday. Check out the arts and crafts, book sale, bake sale and free performances at the nation’s oldest tuition-free art school. Tip: don’t miss the “Play With Your Food” booth.

* And, for those headed to the shore – the Boardwalk Spring Family Fun Fest will be going on all weekend in Ocean City. Face painters, bands, pony rides and a juried art show are some of the featured attractions on the boards from 9-6. Call 609-457-1151 for info.

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Day 11 – Philadelphia City Pass

Give mom the city – without having to gift wrap – with the City Pass.

Wouldn’t you love to wrap up the best Philly has to offer for mom this Mother’s Day? Well, this year give her the National Constitution Center, The Philadelphia Zoo and Adventure Aquarium – without the hassle of wrapping. Easy to do, with the CityPass,your ticket to the best the city has to offer.

Better yet, buy one of these ticket booklets – at $58 a book – for each of you, then share the next few days together exploring six of the most popular Philadelphia attractions, including the Franklin and the Academy of Natural Sciences. You’ll both have wonderful memories of your “staycation,” – and you’ll be saving a whopping 45% off the price of these tickets sold separately.  Passes are valid for nine days, and you’ll see savings if you just check out three of the attractions – but in a city this great, why stop at three?

So make Philly the City of Motherly Love this year by sharing it with the CityPass.

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Day 3 – HotPrints on Facebook

Picture This: Photo Albums Straight from Facebook’s HotPrints – Only $2.99 (Or Get One For Free!)

Here’s a great Mother’s Day gift based on the latest in social networking. Most kids are pros at putting their pictures up on Facebook (much to the regret of some former American Idol contestants). Now they can use those pics to creat a personalized photo album for Mom….and it will be be printed and mailed to her for the user friendly price of just $2.99 an album (plus a mere .79 for shipping).  That price seems to work with almost everyone’s allowance.

It all comes together thanks to the HotPrints application on Facebook.  HotPrints allows users to create 16-page personalized, high-quality photo albums using photos from their Facebook collections. Make it a collection of your “growing up” years, a bunch of photos from your last vacation, or a montage of family and friends. Then your photos are put in albums that are printed on high-quality paper and delivered  by mail.(And I’m told the delivery is speedy quick – 3 to 5 days – so this may be the choice for you last minute shoppers.)

The HotPrints application offers family themed albums, so kids can document and present their family photos or a recent family holiday to their mother in a customizable album layout, and they can change every page to suit their own design. Captions are taken straight from the Facebook album and added to each picture. Each book picks up the tags from the chosen Facebook photos automatically adding the names under each photo. Added bonus: when you publish a HotBook, you will also receive a free PDF version to digitally share with friends and family, even if you do not order the physical print version.  Can you beat that?

Well, yeah. In honor of Mother’s Day, HotPrints is offering 10,000 free print albums. Just go to the application site and use the code MD09. But hurry – quantities are limited, and when they’re gone, they’re gone (though $2.99 is a small price to pay to celebrate memories with mom).

You’re still here?  Go!

25th Philadelphia International Children’s Festival May 1-2

Q- Where can you find the Give & Take Jugglers, a hungry hungry caterpillar and some giants you can hang with?

A- Well, this weekend you can find all of them – and more! – at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts at the 25th annual Philadelphia International Children’s Festival.

The festival, sponsored by the nonprofit arts education initiative Project Synergy, will feature a variety of indoor productions, including Hangin’ With The Giants, The Lost World and Eric Carle favorites. Admission is $10 a production, or you can get a birthday pass – three productions for $25 and a bonus free T-shirt.  And, best of all, the outdoor activities are free! Call 215-898-3900 or check the web site for details.

Free outdoors are arts and crafts projects for children provided by Project Synergy, a nonprofit arts education initiative. The Give & Take Jugglers, back by popular demand, will perform with Clowns Without Borders. On Saturday, the Clay Studio will give free lessons on creating monoprints with clay.

Indoor performances include Break! The Urban Funk Spectacular, in which dancers trace 30 years of hip-hop. Storyteller and author Antonio Sacre will entertain. Audiences can learn the history of blues music in a stage performance of Blues Journey, the children’s book by Walter Dean Myers, adapted by Jerome Hairston.

Cathy & Marcy, folk banjo artists and two-time Grammy winners, and hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon will perform and collaborate in a banjo-meets-hip-hop performance.

Other indoor productions are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites, The Lost World, Hangin’ With the Giants, and more. Low-cost, kid-friendly catered cuisine from the Hinge Cafe will be available.

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Day 2-Omoma Coffee

Brew up a cup of love for mom. Or win a pound for the two of you to share!

Remember the old Beverly Hillbillies TV show, where oil was referred to as “black gold”? Well, most of the moms I know would agree – coffee is the true black gold of our day. Serve your mom a mug of freshly brewed, delicious coffee this Mother’s Day, and you’ll open her eyes to your gratitude and affection.

For an affordable way to treat your mom to her favorite beverage, try a gift set from OMOMA Coffee. Gift sets range in price from a mere $14.99 to $74.99, and all include their delicious 100% Arabica gourmet estate OMOMA coffee, an OMOMA mug, absolutely yummy biscotti and a personalized gift message.  Or, if mom has enough mugs, order a pound of their medium (American), dark (French) or Espresso roast, sold in individual serving packet, by the pot or by the pound.

And, specially for PhillyOnTheCheap readers, OMOMA is offering two special ways for you to share their coffee with mom this Mother’s Day. First, you can get 20% off your order on their site. Just enter coupon code 1239922423 during checkout, and a 20% discount will be applied to one order per customer. Note this code cannot be used with Google checkout, but can be combined with other OMOMA discount offers, including the free shipping for orders over $35. The code is good until May 15.

Now the giveaway – the good folks at OMOMA are giving away a pound of their coffee to one lucky reader. Just enter a comment on this blog post with a mom memory, and you’ll be entered to win the pound. The contest closes Friday, May 8.  Winner will be chosen by our handy dandy itemizer and announced on Mother’s Day.

So head on over to OMOMA – and perk your mom’s day right up!

Mother’s Day Gift Giving Guide: Day 1 – The Giftybox

Experience Counts, So Give One To Mom!

You know, there comes a point in your life when you have all the stuff you need. And even though you appreciate all the stuff you’ve accumulated over the years, what you’d really like for Mother’s Day is a new experience. C’mon, ‘fess up, you know it’s true! And that’s where the Giftybox comes in. Giftybox allows you to give the ultimate gift of experience – and allows your mom to custom tailor the experience to be just what she wants.

Here’s how the whole thing works:

As the buyer (and soon to be mom’s favorite child), you pick the theme you want to give based on what you know mom would like. The choices rang from a winery tour and tasting to pampering at a spa and from massages to whitewater rafting. Just choose the experience you want mom to have, and send her a Giftybox guidebook of all the options in the theme you picked. Then mom can choose the specific activity, time and place she wants (including plenty of choices in our area – see here for details )….so you can give her an experience without ruining her schedule. (If you’re a mom, you know how important flexibility can be!)

This is the best way to give the gift of memory-making we’ve seen. And, though it may sound like an expensive gift, the prices are decidedly budget-minded: just $59 for the Winery Tour and Tasting for two, $49 for a variety of choices in the Classes Box, and $89 for an Adventure Box or a Spa and Well-Being Box.

That’s a smart buy (and mom always said you were the smart one!).

Last Days for Perception: Reality

Just wanted to give a shout out to the fine folks at the Projects Gallery on 2nd Street. They have different exhibitions every week, and they’re a favorite (and free) day trip of my art-loving 12 year old.
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I wanted to let you guys know that this is your last chance to catch the current exhibit, Perception: Reality, which features three simultaneous solo shows on the same theme. Our favorite: the carved phonebook artwork of Cuban artist Alex Queral.

Check them out yourself – but get there Friday or Saturday, or you’ll be too late (though I’m sure the Gallery’s next show will be just as impressive!).