Consonant

Where the songs on Consonant’s self-titled debut sprawled in all directions, those on Love and Affliction (Fenway) are more likely to charge ahead full-speed...

by Sam Adams

mix picks

Latkepalooza: With the holidays approaching, the ever-present Christmas foods are all around us: candy canes, gingerbread houses, eggnog and everything else that makes you think "ho ho ho." Christmas' perky kid sister, Hanukkah, doesn't have quite the same massive industry to churn out the goodies, but non-Jews and Jews alike still have a staple Hanukkah food to celebrate (and no, we don't mean those chocolate coins). —Debra Auspitz

The Rotunda Flea Market Fundraiser: While audiences from West Philly and beyond know the wealth of aesthetic diversity included within The Rotunda's community performance-space walls, you probably don't appreciate its often "for-free" price point. —A.D. Amorosi

Fifth Annual Traditional Puerto Rican Parrandas: Puerto Rican festivities are usually pretty rambunctious, most of all around Christmas time. —Juliet Fletcher

art picks

Embarrassments: When a director begins a show with the word "embarrassments" emblazoned on a banner above the stage, and later presents us with the image of a shamed, heckled playwright ...well, that director must be pretty gutsy or confident (or both). —David Anthony Fox

"Chekhov Mania": The first thing to say is that these short plays are really funny -- laugh-out-loud, mop-your-eyes funny. —Toby Zinman

Santaland Diaries and Season's Greetings: Along with "Chekhov Mania" and a children’s show, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas and Glenn Russell’s Mistero Buffo, the Triangle offers a third holiday show, the nasty twin monologues by David Sedaris. —Toby Zinman

music picks

Martin Sexton —Carolyn Wyman

Handel's Messiah —David Shengold

Moanin' Michelle Malone —M.J. Fine

Cynthia Raim —Peter Burwasser

Michelle Shocked —Nicole Pensiero