Walking into Jammin’ Java Friday night, here’s what I knew about Philly rockers Marah: 1) High Fidelity and About a Boy author Nick Hornby, a man who has documented his musical preferences at least enough for me to know I largely share them, loves on this band so much he devoted one of his book columns in Believer magazine a couple of years ago to their largely unsung magnificence. 1a) Stephen King –Josh Ritter…

Versatile instrument, the piano. The primarily guitar-based P.J. Harvey turns to it to help her write an album of sober, somber chamber music, while the Idaho-bred, Oberlin-educated, equally guitar-centric Josh Ritter uses it to help him loosen up. At least that was the way he made The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, his fifth album since 2000, but his first since 2006’s The Animal Years elevated him from being just another huge-in-Ireland singer-songwriter to someone…

Lots of filmmakers, but especially documentarians, split their time between commercial gigs that keep the lights on and more personal works. Mary Lambert, whose ladies-of-the-U.S. Senate doc 14 Women had its world premiere last night at SILVERDOCS, is no different. Her resume includes the 1989 Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary, some TV and direct-to-video stuff with awesome titles like My Stepson, My Lover and and Halloween II: Kalabar’s Revenge, plus music videos for the likes…

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It’s been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here’s a smattering of what’s been going on. In Gothamist’s neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti…

On Friday night The Hershey Bears were torn apart by Bulldogs in an embarrassing 3-0 home loss in game one of the Calder Cup Finals. After putting on a convincing impression of “the big bad wolf” in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bears got burned at the beginning of the big dance by reclusive nineteen year old named Carey. Of course, the night’s events did not warp into a Stephen King novel. The Bears faced…

There’s so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it’s almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don’t have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist’s London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with…

Do strange sounds in your musty old Georgetown townhouse keep you up at night? Ever wonder who that bloody, transparent little girl is at the foot of your bed? Is George Washington, himself, sharing your bathroom? Who are you gonna call? Why, you’ll call the CPRI (Center for Paranormal Research and Investigation), of course. With Halloween right around the corner, we thought it might be helpful to prepare for the horrors that await by speaking…