Dating on the Cheap: Philadelphia

Thanks to a grant, admission to the oft-overlooked ICA has been free since 2008. Here's where you can get a sneak peek at some of tomorrow's hot artists and have plenty of unusual ice breaking pieces of art to discuss with your date. Plus, almost all speakers, concerts, gallery tours, movie series and openings are free, as well.

Get your movie on and your snack on (and maybe, if you're lucky, your mack on, too) at Movie Mondays at the Troc. Every week (on Mondays, duh) the former burlesque theatre and current concert hall screens flicks that you would like (a recent example is Quentin Tarantino's ?Inglourious Basterds?) for just three bucks. And what's cooler than $3 movies on a Monday? Oh yeah, you can apply those three bills to a food or drink item of your choosing. Let the popcorn roll.

If you a) swore off the Phillies when they lost to the stinkin? Yanks, b) don't think you can handle yourself in front of a date when babe of all babes Chase Utley goes to bat (we understand, oh yes, we do) or, c) can't afford a soda at Citizens Bank Park, much less a ticket, take PATCO or the ferry over to Camden for a Riversharks game. Tickets run from $9-$15 and food is crazy cheap, too. Plus, the view of the Philly skyline is spectacular, as are the fireworks displays that blow out the sky during weekend home games.

OK, so the aesthetics of the interior of a college ice skating rink in West Philly are no match for the vista of the colorfully lit Ben Franklin Bridge seen from the outdoor rink at Penn's Landing but then, the ticket prices at Penn's Landing are no match for those at this University of Penn skating arena. For just $5.50 ($6.50 on weekends), plus $2.50 for skate rental, you and your new sweetie can glide in circles on the ice for hours--hand-holding optional--without running over a million daredevil children or spending your whole allowance on one session.

Although you probably walk or drive by it all the time, you've likely not paid any attention to the Masonic Temple next to City Hall, even though, ahem, it's one of the most astonishing-looking buildings in the city. For $8 ($6 for students with ID), you can take a one-hour guided tour of the cathedral-like structure's seven lodges, each decorated to accurately resemble an historic period in global history. Sound boring? Forget about it. We're talking sphinxes, the Knights Templar, the Alhambra, and, as an added bonus, some ceremonial Masonic items belonging to Ben Franklin and George Washington. Who said these people don't rule the planet?

Although the operative word in Free Library is ?free,? the word that's missing is ?cool.? Yeah, we know we're not a culture that normally thinks of libraries as being bastions of gettin? down with one's bad self, but there are some truly bangin? programs and exhibitions here ? most of them offered at no cost. There are author lectures, music and dance performances, movie screenings and discussions and sometimes, if you're very, very quiet, you can spy old and ancient literary artifacts on display. Our favorite was the lock of Edgar Allan Poe's hair that haunted a glass case for most of 2008. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man's heart.