A lot of ink has been spilled in these pages over the years about why biking is so important in a city like this. The reasons range from environmentalism to health to social justice. I won't go deeper here other than to establish that my pro-bike stance is not (just) some whimsical flight of fancy.

Maybe you can deal with us shooting you the middle finger, or giving your windshield a love tap, or confronting you at a signal light occasionally because we're trying to remind you that we're unprotected out there, and that you are just not fucking paying attention.

What is alive — and quite well — is the noble goal behind WiFi: making the Internet accessible to all. Though, ironically, neither EarthLink nor WiFi's nonprofit administrator, Wireless Philadelphia (WP), can take much credit for helping many across the digital divide.

"Officer, strap my ass on the hood o' yer patrol car and get me to a hospital!"

Those freaking Penguins, man. I need a drink.

CP: Do you feel as though a heterosexual couple and a homosexual couple should have unequal rights?

MB: I've got to think about that one. [20 seconds of silence]

"The district has some of the most important neighborhoods in the state," says Larry Farnese. "I have the largest amount of gay and lesbian voters, a very large business district, the airport and the waterfront." He says he still would like to hear from John Dougherty, however. "I respect him and his union," he says.

This Saturday, the second annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby will bring out about a dozen-and-a-half wheeled vehicles made of disused bike parts and other found materials, racing the streets of Kensington while the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival hums quietly in the background.

You've got two schools of thought when it comes to Ansel Adams. One is that he's a master craftsman who captured the natural beauty of the United States with breathtaking panache. The other school holds that Adams is overrated and uninteresting, a guy who was reasonably skilled at cranking out innocuous, beautiful sunrises that the masses lapped up.

Much of Blanka Zizka's stunning staging unfolds in silence, as when Father constructs a room for his daughter using strings suspended from balloons. His efforts to help her regain her earthly memories suggest the potential for a meaningful life after death — an existence that's meant to be bland and blank.

Performed to music by Bach, this piece integrates balletic formalism with modern-based dramatics — arms splay out wide and legs leap while bodies sweep around the stage to create a swirling vision that conveys the pervading joy of ecstatic dance.

In the large party scenes, the stage overflowed with hyperkinetic bodies, and the garish multicolored lighting suggested that the character of the title, Violetta, was not merely a courtesan, but an out-and-out whore.

Certain dance companies think that if the work is too accessible it surely can't be bona fide art. Well, for 37 years, Pilobolus has proven that attitude is balderdash.

Happiness is "a rumination on the theater, and clowning, which is part of my profession, and aging, and the view from an older performer seeing these really incredible young performers."

Michael Jackson's Off the Wall | J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace  | Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages | Ye Olde 3-D Laser Crystal

Sat.-Sun., May 17-18, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322, freelibrary.org/bookfestival

Fri., May 16, 10 p.m., $10, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, mascherdance.com

Exhibit runs through June 28, free, Esther M. Klein Art Gallery at the Science Center, 3600 Market St., 215-966-6188, kleinartgallery.org

The mid-'90s was arguably the last time American music fans experienced what the critic Robert Christgau referred to as "monoculture," or great swaths of people liking the same band at the same time.

While the famous last name probably hasn't hurt his career too much, the difference between how Liam Finn is sold and how he actually sounds is refreshing.

Los Campesinos!'s punk-ass punctuation may give you pause, but consider it a blessing.

We can get hooked on songs like "The Optimist" and "Autumn Hex Signs," not because of the hypnotic rhythms, but because of their genuine hookiness.