Night

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

In an annual rite known as Upfront Week, NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and the CW just presented their lineups for the 2012-13 TV season to advertisers in New York. The ceremonies took place in some of the city's most august concert Halls (Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Radio City Music) over four days. The broadcast companies introduced only 20 new series for the fall (down from 27 last season). NBC led the pack with six new shows. Fox and the CW had half that many. Like it or not, an awful lot of familiar faces will be returning in the fall.

UPDATE, 4 p.m. Monday, May 14, 2012: On Monday, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt announced that next season would, after all, be the last for "30 Rock," apparently contradicting what he'd told reporters only the day before.   SO MAYBE NEXT season won't be the last for NBC's "30 Rock," after all? Following days of online reports that the network had given the sitcom created by and starring Upper Darby's Tina Fey 13 episodes to wrap things up, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday that "we haven't definitively said that" to the people at "30 Rock" or to those at "The Office" or "Community," both of which will also return.

This summer, hair weaves are taking a turn for the kinky, the curly and the wavy. Why is this news? When black women first started sewing hair onto their scalps during the 1990s en masse, the resulting shoulder-length bobs were as much about achieving a smooth texture as it was about having length. Fabulous hair was defined as long and straight. However, as more black women have come to terms with their natural curl pattern, store-bought tresses are trending toward the fuzzy rather than the flat-ironed.

A new J.C. Penney and Nordstrom Rack are centerpieces of a planned expansion announced Thursday at the site of an old Strawbridge's department store at the Willow Grove Park mall. The stores, set to open in 2012, will be part of 190,000 square feet of renovated space reconfigured from the three-story shell of the Strawbridge's, according to the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the mall. The stores are being slotted into a long-dormant site that was originally to have come back to life as a Boscov's.

How is a two-day concert on the Parkway gonna charge for tickets and keep people from just standing around watching free? We're still waiting for the city and concert promoter Live Nation to answer this one. But Monday morning, Jay-Z joined Mayor Nutter atop the Art Museum steps to announce what we reported Saturday at PhillyGossip.com and had in print Monday, that the Budweiser Made in America festival will take place Sept. 1 and 2. Tickets are $99 for a two-day pass and are on sale May 23 at LiveNation.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Keen listeners might find a poignant layer or two around Charles Dutoit's final stroke as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé ends on a nearly unbearably brilliant A major chord — the key German poet Christian Schubart believed messaged the hope, upon parting, of seeing one's beloved again. Verizon Hall's Thursday night capacity audience seemed to be yearning already. A standing ovation for the conductor began gathering even before the music's start, just after he glided on stage and neared the podium.

Legendary blues guitarist B.B. King performs last night at the Academy of Music, as the third annual Mellon Jazz Festival moves into its last two days, with performances scheduled at various sites today and tomorrow.

On the outside, it has all the charm of a Depression-era train station. Inside, it indeed seems like a quaint relic from another time. But 73 years after it opened, the Palestra still rocks. The old gym on the Penn campus has hosted more games, more visiting teams and more NCAA tournament games than any other facility. When the fans are roaring and the bands are playing, it still is the best place anywhere to see college hoops. No human being can honestly and emphatically say how he or she would react to a crisis.

There's no house band, no purple velvet drapes, and few of the other expected trappings of a late-night talk show. Instead, Comedy Central's "Night After Night" is a comedy-centered talk show in its simplest form, a low-key alternative for viewers drained by the hyperactivity of Jay Leno's and Arsenio Hall's nightly productions. Comedian Allan Havey, the tall, cynical and curious star of "Night After Night," hosts from what appears to be a small office tucked away in the cable channel's New York headquarters.

Probably the most predictable aspect of an unpredictable playoff series between the 76ers and Boston had been the play of Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, who had dished off 13 or more assists in each of the first five games of the matchup. But Wednesday night's sixth game was not vintage Rondo. He played with an uncharacteristic lack of aggression for much of the evening. He was looking more for his shot but the ball wasn't going down. And he managed just six assists, well under half of his series average.

Camryn Drew Rollins is the newest Phillies fan. The baby girl was born to shortstop Jimmy Rollins and fitness trainer bride Johari Smith Rollins late Sunday night. The little lady weighed in at 5 pounds, 11 ounces. As we mentioned yesterday, Rollins had to leave a charity event Sunday night upon learning that Johari was in labor. He was out of the lineup on paternity leave for Monday's and Tuesday's games against the Washington Nationals. Jimmy and Johari wed in the Grand Cayman Islands in January 2010.

The Phillies had squandered so many chances Saturday night until a 90-foot sprint by Jimmy Rollins. When the shortstop's right foot touched first base, he spread his arms to signal safe. First-base umpire Paul Emmel agreed. Rollins clapped his hands and pumped his fist. They were within two runs and pushed Boston to the brink. Then Shane Victorino swung at the first pitch and a wave of good vibes plopped into Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles' glove. A six-game winning streak and chance to escape last place was skunked by a 7-5 loss to Boston.

Keen listeners might find a poignant layer or two around Charles Dutoit's final stroke as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé ends on a nearly unbearably brilliant A major chord — the key German poet Christian Schubart believed messaged the hope, upon parting, of seeing one's beloved again. Verizon Hall's Thursday night capacity audience seemed to be yearning already. A standing ovation for the conductor began gathering even before the music's start, just after he glided on stage and neared the podium.

Pumped for the young Sixers to run the ancient Celtics' legs ragged, Broad Street Baller's hopes were stomped as Rajon Rondo and his rejuvenated mates romped Wednesday night, 107-91, before a stunned Wells Fargo Center crowd. "Rondo set the tone and was able to do whatever he wanted," said Zane "Dr. Z" Major Sr., 55, of Olney, who was a 2-guard/small forward at St. Joe's and used to scrimmage against Doug Collins when the Sixers practiced there back in the day. "We needed better defensive stops — double down on Garnett and push Rondo off the ball.

Conan (11 p.m., TBS) — Gregg Allman; comic Bill Maher. Late Show With David Letterman (11:35 p.m., CBS3) — Journalist Brian Williams; El-P performs. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (11:35 p.m., NBC10) — Comic Wanda Sykes; actor David Hasselhoff; Santana performs. Jimmy Kimmel Live (Midnight, 6ABC) — Johnny Depp; Casey Wilson; Silversun Pickups perform.

Anatolian Days & Nights A Love Affair with Turkey By Joy E. Stocke and Angie Brenner Wild River Books. 264 pp. $16.95 Toward the end of Anatolian Days & Nights, a 12-year-old boy, tour guide for a day to the two authors, encourages them to take shards of pottery that lie amid the rubble of the ancient Turkish city of Harran. "There are so many pots to choose from and all of them so very old, ladies. So old it makes my head hurt," he says. The honest, childlike remark seems to encapsulate the modern-day view of this intensely complex, richly fabled country.

A DYING ARTIST, a crooked cop in search of his kidnapped son, a murdered civil-rights pioneer and a woman in love with a mechanical man are taking the Bolt Bus down from New York for a two-night stand in Philly. Four films that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film fete co-founded by Robert De Niro, will play for free at the Trocadero Theatre courtesy of the Awesome Fest. "Our goal from day one has been to bring the best of the best [of independent film] through this city," said Josh Goldbloom, founder of the Awesome Fest.

Question: We have been lucky to have open communication with our boys about sex over the years. Now they are 16 and 17 and have girlfriends. The 16-year-old has opted for "everything but" because that makes him feel safest. The 17-year-old is having sex and wants me to allow his 18-year-old girlfriend to spend the night. I have persuaded them to get on the pill, but I feel like they should be having sex in the backseats of cars like the rest of us had to. (Ha, just a little humor there!

Grand opera abhors a vacuum — it's too big and expensive not to — which is why the last-minute loss of a leading soprano didn't spell disaster for the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut. The Friday-night opening at the Academy of Music had its glitches. The handsome but complicated scenery didn't always work smoothly. The spotlight had trouble sticking with the person singing. And the opera itself is less than great. But none of that was so important because singers and orchestra rocked — and that included the young replacement soprano Michelle Johnson, who learned the title role in little more than three weeks.