Virginia “Ginny” Smith tends to black-eyed susans in her East Falls garden for the annual fall cleanup.
Winter is less than two months out. As colder conditions creep over the region, your garden will have to cope with the chill.
Beyond removing leaves and branches, here are a couple other things to consider to keep your garden healthy:
🪴 Protect plants from frost: Use old blankets or bubble wrap to insulate containers and pots and keep root systems warm.
🚰 Not just plants: Freezing temps can also hurt your watering hoses. Remember to unhook and drain them to avoid damage.
✂️ Tool care is key: Give your shovels and other tools a proper clean before putting them away, and see if your snips and shears are due for a sharpening. (A local sharpener could help with that.)
🌱 Paola’s pro-tip: Gardening is a year-round effort, so this is the time of year when I like to reflect on what went right, and what I could improve on next year. Keeping a journal to document these developments can be fun.
Part of the Schuylkill River Trail in Center City is closed after a large sinkhole formed under the asphalt. A temporary detour route is available until repairs are made.
🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to environmental reporter Frank Kummer.
Like many farmers, Patrick Giberson feels squeezed from many sides these days.
His family’s soybean and corn farm in Pemberton, Burlington County, has been flanked by a wave of development — new warehouses, shopping centers, and a Walmart.
Meanwhile, a Chinese soybean boycott continues in response to U.S.-imposed tariffs. Equipmentis expensive. And weather remains, as always, unpredictable.
Yet Giberson, 57, a fourth-generation farmer, says he’s determined to adapt and endure. The family’s 800-acre farm, owned by his parents, Jo and Pat Giberson, features a restored 18th-century farmhouse and designated wildlife preserve. — Frank Kummer
Outdoorsy readers submitted these awesome autumnal sights.
As the trees continue to transform, Outdoorsy readers sent in these stunning shots of fall foliage across our region.
Shoutout to Dorothy Stiles, who provided the gorgeous picture taken at Valley Forge National Historical Park (left), and to Joseph and Maria Hill, who captured the Blazing Maple showing off its bright colors (right). They told me they first planted it in their backyard five years ago in Media, Pa.: “We took it home from Home Depot in the back seat of my wife’s Mini Cooper Convertible and now it’s 40-50 feet tall!”
P.S. This Saturday, Oct. 25 and next Saturday, Nov. 1, fall foliage tree tours are taking place at the Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum. Get more details here.
🌳 Your foraging tales
Outdoorsy reader Jeff Laughead pictured with a pawpaw.
Dan Scholnick recommended going by the Cobbs Creek Environmental Center in West Philly. He also raved about the “outrageously good” fruit along S. Saint Bernard Street by a community garden, with this great tip to boot: “I’ve learned that the best ones are the ones you find on the ground having already fallen off the tree.”
And Jeff Laughead, pictured above, suggested we check out Ferncliff Wildflower Preserve out in Lancaster County, which he said has a great pawpaw grove: “A bit of an uphill hike to get there, but totally worth it!”
For yummy fruits, it’s always worth going the extra mile.
👋🏽 Take care out there, friends. Until next time.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
Early on a recent sky-blue Saturday, 12 people stood rapt at Sixth and Washington, gazing up at a flock of pigeons perched along a telephone wire.
“What do you see?” a guide posed, as the pigeons cooed, contently.
The docent’s cheerful query loosened a chorus of replies and conversation, including enthusiastic observations on the birds’ shimmering iridescent hues and micro-feather structure, to discussions on the airfoil-like curvature of their wings, obsessive preening, and seasonal molting.
Just then, a white-speckled feather drifted down from the high wire.
“Here’s a feather floating down right here to make a point,” another guide interjected to laughter.
Avery Breyne-Cartwright, of West Philadelphia, uses binoculars to look at a flock of pigeons on the power lines along Sixth Street and Washington Avenue during a tour.
Welcome to South Philly’s hottest new excursion: Philly Pigeon Tours. A weekly, 90-minute morning stroll to several of the Italian Market’s most established flocks, offering an engaging and enlightening glimpse into the long-revered — and more recently rocky — relationship between humans and rock doves, the fancy term for urban pigeons. It’s a look at South Philly through a pigeon’s eyes.
5,000 years of pigeon history
Founded by partners and pigeon owners (more on that in a moment) Hannah Michelle Brower, 34, and Aspen Simone, 36, Philly Pigeon Tours have quickly transformed into a hot ticket. In June, the pair’s first tour, organized as a one-off, sold out all 25 slots. The crowds keep flocking.
Casually covering 5,000 years of pigeon history — from the rock doves’ esteemed status in ancient times as symbols of love, sexuality, and war to their more thorny present-day urban existence, dodging hungry hawks and alley cats, and navigating anti-pigeon netting and spikes — the pair ask tour takers to challenge skewed cultural narratives.
“We teach people everything we know about pigeons,” said Brower, originally from New Orleans, who first moved to Philly to attend Haverford College, and then returned after earning a master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Earlier this year, federal cuts eliminated her job as a public health consultant.
In August, Simone closed Birdhouse Gelato, after DOGE cuts cost them their day job at an agency that helped improve federal digital efficiency — a gig that helped fund the popular Bella Vista shop.
Pigeons flying in the sky along Sixth Street and Washington Avenue during a pigeon tour.
“We debunk a lot of pigeon misinformation and replace it with facts,” Brower said of the tours.
Having seemingly cornered the Philly pigeon-tour market — the pair will soon start tours in West Philly, with Old City walks coming in the spring, and a podcast just dropping — the outings no doubt appeal to secret pigeon-lovers everywhere. But much of the charm of the pleasant pigeon rambles is found in Brower and Simone’s sincere and catchy love for birds derided by many as “rats with wings.”
“We often talk about how hating pigeons is a choice,” said Simone.
Primrose the Pet Pigeon
The couple weren’t always pigeon boosters themselves.
Brower had never cared much for pigeons until three years ago, when a neighborhood woman caring for an ailing pigeon called out to her.
“I was really like, ‘I don’t understand why we have to care about this,’” she recalls. “I figured that the pigeon could be a tasty snack for some city hawk or cat.”
Convinced by the woman to seek help for the malnourished bird, Brower fell in love with the pigeon before she made it home.
Hannah Michelle Brower (left) and Aspen Simone do some introductions before heading out for a Philly Pigeon Tour.
“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t name the pigeon. You’re gonna become attached.’ But then I said, ‘Primrose is her name.’ She just wanted to be close to me. She was very cuddly, and I just completely fell in love with her.”
Simone recoils when recalling their thoughts upon finding a pigeon stowed in a cardboard box that first night in the couple’s South Philly apartment.
“That’s kind of gross,” they said. But Primrose quickly won Simone over, too.
“It turns out she was a baby and might have been left a little too soon by her parents,” Brower said. “The rehabilitator said, ‘This is the sweetest, most cuddliest pigeon I ever met. I don’t think she’s going to survive on the streets. Do you want a pet pigeon?’”
Pigeon behavior and croissant crumbs
“She’s very much like a cat or a dog,” Brower said with a smile of Primrose, who favors a sunny spot on a guest-bedroom blanket. “She’s a free-roaming indoor pigeon. People always ask about the poop. She has her favorite spots in the house, so we just put down cage paper and it catches the poop. It doesn’t smell.”
Primrose the pet pigeon relaxing at home in a favorite sun spot.
(They are searching the internet for Philadelphia Eagles-themed pigeon poop pants that Primrose can don for guests.)
Regal and stout, with a scarf of green and purple neck feathers and striking orange eyes, the affectionate pigeon quickly made herself at home, perching on the couple’s shoulders and heads during work-from-home Zoom meetings — and whenever the couple prepare to head out the door, wanting to stay with the family flock.
“She likes to sit on our laps and we just pet her,” Brower said, adding that Primrose does the same with company.
Conscientious pigeon owners, Brower and Simone became keen observers of pigeon behavior. Like when Primrose perches near the sink to signal bath time, before luxuriating in a warm bowl of water. Or when she interrupts a TV show or work call to perform a pigeon’s elaborate mating dance, cooing, walking in circles, and running close to the ground, before bowing and elegantly fanning her tail feathers. How she sits atop the unfertilized pigeon eggs she lays, for weeks, until she is confident they will not hatch. Her sweet tooth for croissant crumbs.
Soon, they couldn’t help but spot the same sorts of behaviors among the pigeons they encountered around the neighborhood. They pored over pigeon books.
“We began to look a bit more into the science behind it and learned more about pigeon group dynamics,” said Simone.
Misconceptions based on fear
Holding aloft guide sticks with small cardboard cutouts of Primrose (a decided homebody, Primrose does not join the strolls), Brower and Simone share their newfound pigeon truths one tour at a time.
In ancient Mesopotamia rock doves were associated with gods — and viewed as signs of safety in Abrahamic religions, and symbols of status before the French Revolution, Brower said.
Aspen Simone, of South Philadelphia, leads a Philly Pigeon Tour in the Italian Market.
By the 1960s, the urban pigeon’s reputation was roundly sullied after a media-fueled panic blamed their droppings for causing meningitis in New York City, she said.
“Woody Allen repeated the phrase ‘rats with wings’ in Stardust Memories, and that’s when it spread and took hold,” Simone said of the 1980 film.
A recent tour included two young biologists, a pair of pigeon enthusiast sisters, and a group of young friends. They had all seen advertisements for the tours tacked up in the neighborhood or on Instagram.
A mated pair of pigeons seen resting on top of a storefront in the Italian Market.
“We were talking about how pigeons make us feel emotional,” said Tess Cronin, on why she and her friends signed up for the tour. “How pigeons were bred by human beings, and now we think of them as rats and pests.”
Near Ninth Street, where businesses are outfitted with spikes to keep birds from roosting, Brower and Simone preached pigeon empathy. Starting with the lessons they learned from Primrose.
Like with all things, Brower said, it’s never just about pigeons.
“Our misconceptions originated with fear,” she said. “And I think we’ve really been able to catch ourselves better when we notice ourselves maybe stereotyping.”
With that, the tour set out to find more pigeons.
A white pigeon seen resting on a sign during the Philly Pigeon tour in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.
Woodmere Art Museum director and CEO William R. Valerio never thought he’d be standing in a former second-floor bedroom turned into a cozy, copper-hued art gallery, admiring Violet Oakley’s famous series of paintings: Building the House of Wisdom.
Yet, there he was.
Two weeks before the new Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education opens on Nov. 1, Valerio was brimming with excitement.
The Victorian mansion and former convent is the new home to the 112-year-old Chestnut Hill museum’s permanent collection, the most definitive group of paintings, sculptures, and prints by Philadelphia artists in the region — if not the world.
William R. Valerio surrounded by Violet Oakley’s seminal work “Building the House of Wisdom” in the Frances M. Maguire’s second floor Violet Oakley Gallery. Valerio recreated this gallery as a replica of Charlton Yarnall’s early 20th century Rittenhouse Square home where the 12-piece series was commissioned for the mansion’s music room.
“I’ve been at the museum for 15 years and I’ve always wanted to build a space to show House of Wisdom the way Oakley intended it to be shown,” Valerio said. “But I never could have imagined this.”
This is a four-story, 17,000-square-foot,gleaming house museum.
The Violet Oakley Gallery is particularly noteworthy. The 375-square-foot space is a recreation of early 20th-century banker Charlton Yarnall’s music room, where Oakley’s vibrant murals were nestled in the Rittenhouse Square mansion’s vaulted ceilings.
At Maguire Hall, Oakley’s allegorical interpretations of wisdom in the arts and sciences are fixed in lunettes positioned at eye level, allowing museumgoers to sit in a meditative gaze under a glowing replica of Italian designer Nicola d’Ascenzo’s stained glass dome.
Oakley’s House of Wisdom has been on and off view at Woodmere since 1962, when the museum’s then director — and Oakley’s life partner — Edith Emerson brought the 12-piece series to the museum. Yarnall’s mansion was being converted to an office building, and Emerson feared her late partner’s seminal work would be carelessly discarded.
“The House of Wisdom is among the roughly 11,000 pieces of art we’ve acquired over the decades that now have a place to shine like never before,“ Valerio said.
View of hallway between six second-floor galleries at Woodmere’s soon-to-be-opened Frances M. Maguire Hall.
‘Philadelphia’s great masterpieces’
Charles Knox Smith opened the Woodmere Museum — what is now the museum’s Charles Knox Smith Hall — in 1913. It holds Woodmere’s vast 18th- and 19th-century collections, including Smith’s beloved Philadelphia landscapes, and is open Wednesday to Sunday.
A few houses down and across the street, Maguire Hall’s 14 galleries hold paintings, sculptures, illustrations, photographs, and mixed media murals centering 20th-century Philadelphia artists.
William R. Valerio, director and CEO of Woodmere Museum, chatting in front of George Biddle’s 1966 oil on canvas “Evocation of the Past.”
“The idea is to show off Philadelphia’s great masterpieces,” Valerio said.
He and his four-person curatorial team spent months mounting golden frames on the monochromatic walls, so closely together they nearly touched. It gives Maguire Hall the intimate vibe of a 19th-century home.
Every major 20th-century art movement is represented, but the curation is a nod to 21st-century diversity.
African American realist Ellen Powell Tiberino’s striking nude Repose shares gallery space with Martha Mayer Erlebacher’s stunning life-size portrait The Path. Both are only a few feet away from a work by George Biddle — of the illustrious Philadelphia family that traces its roots to the 17th century — the thoughtful Evocation of the Past.
Black Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts scholar Charles Jay’s meticulous floral still life paintings from the early 1980s line Maguire Hall’s grand staircase. It leads to the second-floor galleries, where lauded 1920s impressionist Walter Elmer Schofield’s bucolic renderings of snowy Wissahickon trails coolly hang.
William R. Valerio, director and CEO of Woodmere Art Museum in conversation with Syd Carpenter’s arresting “Frank as the Sun King,” paying homage to Carpenter’s brother who served in the Army during the 90s during Desert Storm and returned to Philadelphia as a quadriplegic.
An entire gallery is dedicated to female artists, featuring portraits by Oakley and Emerson. They are in conversation with an arresting sculpture by Syd Carpenter, Frank as the Sun King, an homage to Carpenter’s brother, who served in Desert Storm and came home to Philadelphia as a quadriplegic. Carpenter curated the Colored Girls Museum’s Livingroom Garden in 2024.
“These diverse backgrounds and social experiences reshape and expand the canon of 20th-century art through a Philadelphia lens,” Valerio said.
A major gift
Maguire Hall was built in 1854 as a country estate for the family of William Henry Trotter, an importer of steel, copper, and tin. In the 1890s, the house was renovated by sugar merchant Alfred C. Harrison.
The Sisters of St. Joseph bought the stately home from developers in the 1920s to serve as the Norwood-Fontbonne Academy dorm. The nuns lived there until 2021, when Woodmere purchased it for $2.5 million.
“It gave us the opportunity to take items out of storage and show the beauty of Woodmere to the world,” Valerio said.
Overview of the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent that’s been transformed to Woodmere’s Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education in Chestnut Hill.
James J. Maguire Sr. built a string of small insurance companies into a national conglomerate in the mid- to late 20th century. In 2008, he completed a $5 billion merger with a Japanese firm and, with his wife, Frances, became one of the region’s largest philanthropic donors.
An artist and patron of the arts, Frances Maguire died in 2020. Three years later, the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum was opened at the former home of the Barnes by St. Joseph’s University, which had received a $50 million donation from the Maguire Foundation in 2017.
Frances Maguire also spent a lot of time at Woodmere, taking classes and serving on the board of trustees. In her honor, the Maguire Foundation gave the museum $10 million. Valerio raised an additional $18 million from donors, state, and federal funding. The $28 million was used to renovate the mansion and start an endowment.
Entrance way of the Frances M. Maguire hall. To the left is a portrait of Maguire by Kassem Amoudi. The chandelier Chestnut Street’s Boyd Theater open from 1928 to 2002.
A portrait of Frances Maguire by Kassem Amoudi hangs in the foyer.
“In creating the Frances M. Maguire Hall and supporting Woodmere, we are assuring that her legacy is shared with current and future generations,” said Megan Maguire Nicoletti, one of the Maguires’ nine children and CEO of the Maguire Foundation.
All the details
Krieger Architects worked with New York-based Baird Architects to turn the ramshackle convent into a modern museum, complete with wheelchair-accessible ramps and a shiny glass elevator overlooking the art trail connecting Maguire Hall to Charles Knox Smith Hall.
Mammoth sculptures by 1959 Penn graduate Robinson Fredenthal are visible from the elevator as well as chokeberry, bayberry, and pawpaw trees, planted in Woodmere’s perennial Outdoor Wonder garden in honor of the Lenape Indians. Maguire Hall boasts a brand-new porch dotted with bright Adirondack chairs that once belonged to the University of the Arts.
Detail of Belgium carver Edward Maene’s work in The Frances M. Maguire Hall breakfast nook. During the renovation, the carvings original red, green, and golden hues were discovered.
In the mansion’s dining room, breakfast room, and central staircase are exquisite woodcarvings from 20th-century master and Belgium immigrant Edward Maene.
“He went all out and carved fantastical medallions with images of fish that turned into birds and humans that turned into lions,” Valerio said of Maene’s work.
There is the MacDonald Family Children’s Art Studio, where little ones can try their hands at finger painting, watercolors, and perhaps a bit of jewelry making. Right across from it is a jewelry vault, where an ankle-length Henri David coat sparkles with jewels from local Victorian-era jewelry houses: Bailey, Banks & Biddle and Caldwell.
Tyler School of Art and Architecture graduate Theophilus Annor fashioned hand mannequins for the baubles. (Annor also carved Adinkra symbols into John Rais’ decorative wrought iron)
Jewels shown on a hand mannequin fashioned by Ghanian artist Theophilus Annor in the Frances M. Maguire jewelry vault. (L) Theophilus Annor, Holding On, 2024, Gold & faceted gemstone. (R) Richard Reinhardt, Ring, date unknown.
Housing history
The second-floor illustrative arts rooms feature wartime drawings from 1940s issues of the Saturday Evening Post and framed TV Guide images of Kojak’s Telly Savalas and Columbo’s Peter Falk. (TV Guide was owned by former Inquirer and Daily News publisher Walter Annenberg.)
“This part of our history is often forgotten,” Valerio said. “But it was important to artists who lived here and made a living in what was then a big media city.”
The first floor gallery of the Frances M. Maguire Hall featuring (left) Ashley Flynn’s stark mural of drug culture in Kensington and “Madre del Nene” a1990, oil on linen from Bo Bartlett
But the bottom floor is the star. Housed here are Maguire’s most evocative pieces, like an abstract collage by Danny Simmons — brother of hip-hop luminaries Russell and Joseph “Run” Simmons — titled Hocus Pocus, which interrogates magic in the Black community. Ashley Flynn’s gripping mural depicting drug abuse in Kensington and gay artist and collage maker Stuart Netsky’sHave Your Cake and Eat it Too, which puts a naughty twist on Victorian-era prudishness, radiate under the Boyd Theatre’s chandelier.
With this work, Valerio hopes Maguire Hall plays a role in shaping a more inclusive future in Philadelphia — and around the world — through the arts.
“We do what no other museum does in exploring the art and culture of this city in depth,” Valerio said. “And we welcome everyoneto take part in the conversation.”
Woodmere’s Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education, 9001 Germantown Ave., opens to the public on Nov. 1 and 2. Charles Knox Smith Hall is located at 9201 Germantown Ave. Both are open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10. Free on Sundays. woodmere.museum.org
The article was updated to reflect the new name of the children’s art studio at Woodmere Museum, and the last name of Maguire Foundation’s CEO.
Ghouls, ghosts, goblins, and other monsters have arrived in Philadelphia, ready for a weekend of Halloween-themed activities and spooky strolls through the city.
It’s time to embrace the season of costume parties, haunted houses, horror movie marathons, and Halloween-themed pop-ups. Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered on all fronts, plus a treat for East Passyunk festival-dwellers, and derby racing fans.
Peter Richard Conte plays the pipe organ at the Wanamaker building for the launch of Opera Philadelphia and Scene’s Pipe Up! Series in Philadelphia on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. The historic Wanamaker department store re-opened its doors – this time as a pop-up arts space.
The Wanamaker Building is transforming into a spooky film theater this week for Pipe Up!, a pop-up series of 1920s silent horror films — all accompanied by live music on a pristine 1929 Wurlitzer organ. Curated by former Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey, the lineup includes eerie masterpieces like Nosferatu, Faust, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and more.
Each night features a different organist improvising along to the film in the building’s Greek Hall, offering an experience straight out of cinema’s earliest days. Screenings begin at 7 p.m. and are free with advance registration at operaphila.org
The best things to do this week
🛥️ Scares at the Seaport: Celebrate the spookiest time of the year at the Independence Seaport Museum, where family-friendly crafts, activities, and candy will be on full display on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
🎃 Pumpkins at East Passyunk: Bring the family out for pumpkin carving, live music, and tasty hidden treats stashed inside nearby businesses at East Passyunk Fall Fest on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
🏎️ Derby Racing: Start your marks. Kensington Derby & Arts Festival brings the homemade, human-powered vehicles parade back to the neighborhood, and straight into a giant mud pit.
🌊 Waterfront Fun: Cherry Street Pier will be the site of the hands-on Halloween party, “PopUpPlay,” where kids can make giant cardboard monsters, go skull-hunting, and explore a miniature Halloween village
📅 My calendar picks this week: Day of the Dead at the Magic Gardens Studio, Tricks & Treats, Philadelphia Film Festival
The thing of the week: Spend a spooky weekend in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.
Sleepy Hollow
Want to take your Halloween endeavors on the road? Take a driving distance getaway for some twisting corn mazes, high-tech haunts, and other activities in New York’s Hudson Valley.
The two and a half hour drive from Philly leads travelers to the setting of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The two blends colonial history, Halloween pageantry, and a distinctive flair for the supernatural.
Fall fun this week and beyond
🎃 Pick your patch: From Bucks to Lancaster County, farms near Philly are serving up peak fall fun — pumpkin picking, hayrides, corn mazes, cider doughnuts, and more. Find one near you.
💀 Ready to scream? Haunted prisons, zombie farms, cursed mills, and a murder-filled motel — the Philly area has no shortage of Halloween haunts. From Eastern State Penitentiary’s Halloween Nights to the infamous Bates Motel and Pennhurst Asylum, these nine terrifying attractions are guaranteed to get your heart racing. See the full list.
🌻 Sunflower Days continue: Sunflower Days continue at Hellerick’s Farm in Doylestown, which blooms with 25 varieties of sunflowers. Plus, you can pick your own raspberries and blackberries, too, at its lush pastures. There are also farm activities like goat petting, mini golf, silo climbing wall, and more for all ages through Nov. 1.
🍂 FallFest in full swing:FallFest at Shady Brook Farm in Yardley continues through Oct. 30. There will be pumpkins and apples galore, plus sunflowers, zinnias, and a Sesame Street-themed corn maze. So, don’t be a groach. Stop by for a bonfire, light shows, and live music all weekend.
🕸️ Spooky, not scary: Philly’s packed with kid-friendly Halloween fun this month — from Boo at the Zoo and pumpkin science at the Franklin Institute to trick-or-treat parades in Chestnut Hill and East Passyunk. Costumes encouraged, jump scares optional.
The take
Can you move your neighbor’s cones when they “save” a public parking spot? In this Very Philly Question, editors Evan Weiss, Sam Ruland, and Tommy Rowan tackle one of the city’s most sacred block-by-block debates.
Spoiler: Cone savers get no love. “You don’t own the street — it’s public parking!” says Sam. Tommy allows a brief snow-day exception, but otherwise, “Cones are getting tossed.” The crew admits there’s a mix of adrenaline and fear in the act — “You move it like it’s a lit bomb,” Sam says — but agree the neighborhood’s quietly rooting for you.
If the cone owner catches you? Smile, wave, and say, “Thanks for saving it for me!” — or just hit ’em with a confident “Go Birds.” What do you think?
Our staffer picks
Pop music critic Dan DeLuca lists the top concerts this weekend:
🎤 Thursday:Billie Eilish returns to town for her “Happier Than Ever – The World Tour,“ which initially drew her to Philly in October 2024. Last time she played at Wells Fargo Center, but now it’s the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
🎸 Friday: Off the heels of her highly anticipated album A Matter of Time, the Grammy-winning jazz-pop artist Laufey is coming to Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. She will be joined by English singer Suki Waterhouse.
🎸 Saturday: After a decade-long break from music,The Autumn Defense have picked up the momentum following the release of the band’s sixth album, Here and Nowhere. The band is bringing its breezy and harmonious take on folk-rock to Ardmore Music Hall on Saturday.
🎤 Sunday:Magdalena Bay will take fans on a mind-bending journey of pop music for the duo’s “Imaginal Mystery Tour” stop at the Fillmore Philadelphia on Sunday.
If you’re like me, you’re still figuring out your Halloween plans as you go. But I hope this week’s newsletter got some things in order and offered a few surprising treats along the way.
After selling out football stadiums and baseball fields worldwide during the band’s last tour, Foo Fighters is coming back for another North American run.
The iconic Seattle-bred band announced it is embarking on a 12-city stadium tour with fellow rockers Queens of the Stone Age and will stop at Lincoln Financial Field on Aug. 13, 2026.
General tickets to the show will be available at 10 a.m. Oct. 31.
The band performed in the now-shuttered Trocadero Theatre in 1995, soon after its inception in 1994. Over the years, it has performed at the Electric Factory, First Union Center, the Wachovia Center, and the Wells Fargo Center in 2011.
Thursday’s announcement came with the release of a new single, “Asking for a Friend,” an intense and decidedly darker track than the band’s recent hit, “Today’s Song,” which debutedin July.
From left, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl and Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters performs onstage at the after-party for the Los Angeles premiere of “Studio 666” at the Fonda Theatre on Feb. 16, 2022, in Hollywood, California. (Rich Fury/Getty Images/TNS)
Foo Fighters founder and lead singer Dave Grohl said the song and the upcoming tour are inspired by the band’s recent surprise club shows, beginning with a performance at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, Calif., last month.
After turning back the clock and performing more than 30 years worth of songs, Grohl said the band was reminded “why we love and are forever devoted to doing this Foo Fighters thing.”
The band, led by Grohl, lost drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, while on tour in Colombia. John Freese, who had stepped in as drummer after Hawkins died, was dismissed from the band in 2025. The band will be touring with a new drummer, Ilan Rubin, who has played drums for Nine Inch Nails and Paramore.
A July 2022 scheduled stop at Lincoln Financial Field was canceled following Hawkins’ death.
The new tour includes stops in Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Nashville, Las Vegas, Fargo, N.D., and Vancouver, B.C., among others. The bandsaid that it will be announcing more shows.
Presale tickets will be available 10 a.m. Oct. 29. ticketmaster.com.
Two of classical music’s biggest stars slated to perform together in Philadelphia have canceled their appearance.
Hilary Hahn is still recovering from a double pinched nerve, and the violinist’s Dec. 4 Kimmel Center recital with pianist Lang Lang won’t be rescheduled, Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts announced Thursday.
The recital was to have been repeated a few days later in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and that performance, too, has been canceled.
Both Hahn and Lang Lang were trained at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, where their conservatory days overlapped in the late 1990s.
Hahn announced this past summer that she was canceling performances through November for the same reason. At the time she wrote on social media that “while I thought I was fully recovered from my injury last season, I’m not. I have a lot more left to say on the violin and I’m not giving up! I will miss you and I hope to see you all soon.”
The next artist scheduled in POEA’s recital series is Víkingur Ólafsson, the Icelandic pianist whose Bach Goldberg Variations in 2024 with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society had the audience “universally over the moon,” said PCMS artistic director Miles Cohen. Ólafsson has recorded works of Bach, Mozart and his contemporaries, Philip Glass, and Debussy.
Ólafsson’s March recital in Marian Anderson Hall includes Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert.
Ticket holders for the Hahn-Lang Lang recital will receive a gift certificate for the value of their tickets, a POEA spokesperson said.
The head of the Pew Charitable Trusts is stepping down.
Susan K. Urahn, president and CEO, is expected to retire in early 2027 after a search for a successor is completed and the new leader has begun working at the organization, a Pew spokesperson said.
Urahn, 72, began at Pew in 1994 and took the top job in 2020 following the retirement of longtime chief Rebecca W. Rimel.
Neither Urahn nor board chair Christopher Jones were made available for interviews. But, in a statement posted on Pew’s website, Urahn said she was fortunate to work with colleagues and a board “all dedicated to finding common ground and using facts as the foundation for discussion and action.”
“Under Sue’s leadership, Pew has become even better and stronger,” read a statement attributed to Jones.
Pew — which has offices in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other cities — is a combination foundation/think tank, conducting research and disbursing grants to nonprofit organizations.
In Philadelphia, it awards money to arts groups through the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Its D. C-based Pew Research Center provides research on demographic trends and social issues, as well as polling on matters like politics, religion, climate change, and the role of technology in daily life.
Pew’s work is funded through seven charitable trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by the children of Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph Newton Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. As of June 2024, the collective value of the trusts was $6.1 billion, a spokesperson said.
In addition to funding Philadelphia arts groups and individual artists, Pew has sometimes taken a more activist role by partnering with other philanthropists on large civic projects costing tens of millions of dollars, such as the 2012 move by the Barnes Foundation from Merion to the Ben Franklin Parkway. In 2008, Pew contributed millions toward a bailout of the Kimmel Center that relieved it of debt left over from the arts center’s construction phase.
Urahn, most recently based in D.C., worked her way through several posts — including director of Pew’s planning and evaluation division; director of the Pew Center on the States; and executive vice president for Pew’s work on state policy, economics and healthcare.
A search for a new president is expected to begin in January.
Sure, Philly’s the birthplace of the nation. But we’re also the site of the first hot-air balloon ride (1793), the first selfie (1839), and the first pencil with an attached eraser (1858). So why not celebrate these Philly firsts and many more?
That’s the idea behind the Philadelphia Historic District 250th Committee’s “52 Weeks of Firsts” in 2026. Every week, all year, there will be a party somewhere in the city honoring a different “Philly-born” first, replete with a “first-ival,” storytelling, giveaways, scavenger hunts, and an oversized #1 sculpture made of foam to mark the exact spot, or closest thing to it, of the milestone.
On Thursday, during a festive gathering at the Constitution Center featuring circus performers, Mummers, Once Upon A Nation storytellers, and ice cream sodas from Franklin Fountain, officials announced the complete schedule for “52 Weeks of Firsts.”
“Philadelphia has always been a city of firsts — from the founding of our nation to innovations that shaped everyday life,” said Amy Needle, president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia Inc. “It’s an opportunity for residents and visitors alike to go and explore and find these firsts and learn about all the amazing history and innovation that has happened in Philadelphia in the last 250 years.”
Fitting with planners’ promise to bring the 250th celebration to the neighborhoods, the 52 Weeks festivities will take place across at least 16 different sections of the city, Needle said. In compiling the list, a partnership of representatives from 22 Philly museums and cultural institutions adhered to a strict definition of first from Merriam Webster: “preceding all others in time, order, or importance.”
Some Philly firsts are known to every schoolchild. Like the first American flag (thanks, Betsy: 1777). And first naming of the United States (1776.) Others may stump even the most ardent Philly booster. Like the country’s first public showing of a motion picture (1870), first U.S. weather bureau office (also 1870), and first electronic computer (1945).
The 52 Weeks of First aims to capture all that has made Philly first in the nation throughout the years, Needle said.
“There are so many things that Philadelphia has to be excited about,” she said.
Here is the full list, with the schedule for the whole year.
52 Weeks of Firsts: Week by week
First Hot Air Balloon Flight in America: 1793
The Athenaeum, Jan. 3, 2026
First Folk Parade: 1901
Mummers Museum, Jan. 10, 2026
First Volunteer Fire Company: 1736
Fireman’s Hall Museum, Jan. 17, 2026
First Professional Basketball League: 1898
Location TBD, Jan. 24, 2026
First Public Girl Scout Cookie Sale: 1932
Location TBD, Jan. 31, 2026
First African Methodist Episcopal Congregation: 1794
Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Feb. 7, 2026
First Abolitionist Society in America: 1775
The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 2026
First Authentic Chinese Gate Built in America: 1984
Ghostly films will meet ghosts of department stores past in a pop-up film series leading up to Halloween. Film historian and former Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey has curated five silent films from the 1920s to be shown at the Pipe Up! series in the Wanamaker Building — each one accompanied by live organ.
Among the films being screened are Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) and Faust (1926).
“What was scary a century ago when the great German filmmakers invented these templates of the modern horror movie aren’t exactly spine-tingling today,” said Rickey. “But they are creepy, in the manner of folk and fairy tales — and artists like Hieronymus Bosch. They get under the skin. And they’re inventive.”
Also being shown are two lesser-known Swedish films: Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (1921) — “a huge influence on Ingmar Bergman,” says Rickey — and Häxan (1922), Benjamin Christensen’s film purporting to be documentary.
“It hypothesizes what medievalists called possessed nuns and black sabbaths, and what Freud would call female hysteria. It is the earliest example of goth horror that I’ve ever seen,” Rickey said.
The screenings are scheduled to take place in the Wanamaker Building’s Greek Hall, which means the musical accompaniment will be played on an instrument that gets considerably less attention than the one in the Grand Court.
That smaller instrument is a theater organ, a restored 1929 Wurlitzer originally from the Fox Theatre in Appleton, Wis.
“It’s pristine, it hasn’t been fooled with like a lot of Wurlitzers,” said Friends of the Wanamaker Organ president Ray Biswanger. “It’s got a lot of color in it and represents well the experience of hearing a silent movie.”
Organists have different approaches to scoring silent film, said Peter Richard Conte, the Wanamaker Grand Court organist who is playing two of the five nights. His method is to watch the film 10 to 15 times, prepare a cue sheet, and play leitmotifs (recurrent themes) for various characters and places.
“And you just watch the film like a hawk and improvise,” he said.
Conte tends to avoid tucking in popular tunes or familiar musical references. “It distracts from the film. It can be cute and occasionally I will do it, but almost like a joke. What you want to do is disappear. If the audience forgets that you’re there,” Conte says, “that’s the biggest compliment I can get.”
The lineup: Monday, “Faust,” organist Ian Fraser; Tuesday, “The Phantom Carriage,” organist Don Kinnier; Wednesday, “Nosferatu,” organist Peter Richard Conte; Thursday, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” organist Peter Richard Conte; Friday, “Häxan,” organist Don Kinnear.
Screenings begin at 7 p.m. at the Wanamaker Building, 1300 Market St. Admission is free with advance registration. operaphila.org.
Conte will also perform on the Grand Court Organ for a live-to-screen presentation of the 1925 film “The Phantom of the Opera,” Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. The event is free and requires no advance registration.
The stars of the night were Tyrese Maxey and first-round pick VJ Edgecombe, who scored 34 points, the third-best debut for a rookie in NBA history.
Barkley used Edgecombe’s eye-opening debut to jokingly take a shot at his college coach, Baylor’s Scott Drew. In reality, the two are close, and Barkley played with Drew’s brother, Bryce Drew, with the Houston Rockets.
“Scott Drew can’t coach. He’s been holding this kid back,” Barkley joked.
“I was asked a thousand times this summer about the Sixers. I said I can’t give a fair prediction,” Barkley said. “As much as I love Edgecombe and Maxey, if Embiid and Paul George can’t play, [the Sixers] are not a contender.”
“He only gave your four points,” Shaq added.
So yeah, while Barkley, Shaq, Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith have jumped from TNT to ESPN, nothing changed about the chemistry of Inside the NBA, one of the most beloved sports shows in TV history.
Who else would ESPN let compare new Wizards guard CJ McCollum to convicted felon and former New York U.S. Rep. George Santos, who was released from prison by President Donald Trump?
“Man, I don’t know what CJ McCollum did to someone” to end up on the Wizards, Barkley said. “We freed George Santos, let’s free CJ McCollum.”
The foursome, now in their 15th season working together, mocked their new home relentlessly, joking that Barkley will appear on every ESPN show, from Get Up to First Take to NFL Live.
“One thing I’m not going to be is Stephen A. Smith — everywhere,” Barkley said.
Much later in the evening — ESPN let Inside the NBA roll past 1 a.m. Philly time — Johnson quizzed Barkley on which networks a handful of NBA personalities worked for. Barkley got two right, but missed on TNT colleague Allie LaForce.
And for those keeping score, Barkley picked the New York Knicks to win the Eastern Conference, a prediction that will likely change at least seven times before the end of the season.
TNT had broadcast NBA games since 1989, but the NBA rejected the network’s offer in favor of new 11-year deals NBC and Amazon. Despite that, the show is still produced by TNT out of their Atlanta studio. It’s just the name on front of the desk that’s ultimately different.
Barkley and company will be back on the network tonight for another doubleheader: Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers at 7:30 p.m. Philly time, followed by Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors at 10 p.m.
“Ernie, that’s today!” Barkley said shortly after midnight.
Once the NFL season is over, Amazon will stream NBA games on Prime Video Thursday nights. Until then, the evening is wide-open, allowing ESPN to swoop in to broadcast two national games tonight.
After that, Inside the NBA will have a light schedule on ESPN until the end of the year, though they’ll appear more frequently during the second half of the season.
Here’s when Inside the NBA will appear on ESPN though the end of December:
Thursday, Oct. 23: ESPN
Wednesday, Oct. 29: ESPN
Wednesday, Nov. 12: ESPN
Thursday Dec. 25: ESPN and ABC
Mark Sanchez still recovering from stabbing as trial date set
Mark Sanchez has called NFL games for Fox since 2021.
Mark Sanchez won’t be returning to a broadcast booth anytime soon.
The Fox Sports announcer and former Eagles quarterback is scheduled to go on trial next month to face accusations he attacked and injured a delivery driver in Indianapolis Oct. 4 ahead of calling an NFL game.
Sanchez, 38, was also seriously injured in the assault, and his recovery could force a delay in the trial, which is scheduled to begin Dec. 11.
Sanchez is accused of drunkenly assaulting a delivery driver in a fight stemming from an argument over a parking space. Police said the driver, Perry Tole, 69, pepper sprayed Sanchez, then pulled out a knife and stabbed him multiple times in self-defense.
“We are literally talking about people fighting over a parking space and-or a dispute about where people are parking, and it resulted in someone receiving just incredibly significant injures,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears told reporters a few days after the incident.
In a lawsuit filed against both Sanchez and Fox Sports, Tole claimed the fight left him with “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function” and other injuries.
Fox Sports has declined any further comment on the incident beyond a brief statement issued in the immediate aftermath of the fight: “Our thoughts and prayers are with Mark, and we ask that everyone please respect his and his family’s privacy during this time.”
Quick hits
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe impressed the Celtics’ announcers.
Barkley and Shaq weren’t the only ones impressed by Edgecombe’s debut — announcers on NBC Sports Boston were amazed by his first-quarter jam:
Amazon announced the Eagles’ Black Friday matchup against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 28 will stream for free on its Prime Video platform, welcome news for Birds fans that live around the world (unless you live in Canada, where it will remain behind the paywall). The game will air for free in the Philadelphia TV market on Fox 29.
Tom Brady is back to broadcast his third Eagles game of the season Sunday, when the Birds take on the New York Giants at 1 p.m. on Fox. It won’t be his last — Brady is slated to call the Eagles Week 12 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys and the Birds Week 17 trip to Buffalo to play the Bills.
Say goodbye to ESPN’s Monday Night Football doubleheaders. NFL owners approved the league’s deal to sell the NFL Network to Disney Wednesday. As a result, the four extra games slotted to ESPN will return to the NFL, according to Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer.
