Welcome to Primer, City Paper's guide to Philadelphia

You've probably heard some things about Philadelphia. We hope that just some of them are true.

Philadelphia's a lot of things. A city. A collection of neighborhoods. Large and sprawling while managing to feel, at times, incredibly small. It's historic and modern. Angry and joyous. Stubborn and flexible. Ethnic and native. Cosmopolitan and parochial. It's a patchwork of overlapping contradictions so carefully honed and battle-tested that Philadelphia can feel like everything all at once.

Trying to encapsulate a city like this in 100 pages is something of a fool's errand. And we're a bunch of fools who like errands. The idea for Primer was to make it a user guide to your city. We break down the peculiarities that make Philly, well, peculiar (i.e.: Why is there no beer at the grocery store?); we blanket the neighborhoods, travel guide-style; and we offer up an index of restaurants, galleries, bars, clubs, boutiques, music venues that — and I can't stress this enough — is not comprehensive but should get the ball rolling to where getting down in it and appreciating the city is concerned.

Primer is aimed at newcomers and recent transplants. But to be honest, I've lived here for going on 18 years, and there's stuff inside that I was surprised to learn.

Philly's a big, awesome, complicated city whether you've been here a day or a decade. We hope this handbook helps, no matter how you use it.

For information on where to find Primer, e-mail primer@citypaper.net.

For information on advertising in next year's Primer, please contact Angela Serafine at 215-735-8444 x215 or angela@citypaper.net