Expect Phillies pitchers Brad Lidge and Brett Myers to act like big kids before today's game against the Astros.

They're getting a visit from the nu-metal band Drowning Pool. The pitchers have the Texas band's anthems blared over the PA when they come out to pitch. Lidge grooves to "Soldiers." As a closer, Myers requested "Bodies," but for his start today, he'll switch to "Enemy."

Drowning Pool will visit Citizens Bank Park before concertizing tonight at the House of Blues in Atlantic City. They may stick around a while for the game, says front man Ryan McCombs - and not necessarily to root for the Astros. "We're total sports-aholics," he says. "We'll watch anything - baseball, hockey, whatever. I grew up in Indiana and Cleveland, so I tend to root for the underdogs."

Bucks looks good

What does Bucks County have in common with the Bosporus, Borneo's rain forests, and Alaska's Inside Passage?

Bucks is ranked among the world's top sightseeing destinations, according to the new oversized photo book Dream Destinations from Life Books. It's due in stores in a few weeks.

Besides sightseeing spots, the book ranks vacations for families (London; Orlando), culture vultures (Giverny, France; Nanjing, China), sporty types (golfing in Oregon; white-water rafting in the Sun Kosi River in Tibet); history buffs (Captain Cook's Polynesia; Crete); and romantics (Montreal; St. Lucia).

Life Books editor Robert Sullivan praises the sophistication of Route 213's interchange with Route 1 and admires the raw splendor that is the USX plant in Fairless Hills.

No! No! No! Sullivan rhapsodizes about a drive in autumn north on River Road from Washington's Crossing to New Hope, which "could compete with any up-country hamlet in a Currier & Ives contest."

"New England's got nothing on this," says Sullivan, a New Englander himself.

Filmdom

The Last Airbender is now the name of M. Night Shyamalan's next shot-in-Philly flick, not Avatar - the name of the TV series on which it's based. (Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies seek to avoid confusion with the 3-D drama Avatar that James Cameron will direct.) Hollywood trades yesterday pointed to a July 2, 2010, release for The Last Airbender, a live-action adventure. Shyamalan will start preparation in September to shoot next spring, as I reported Sunday.

Briefly noted

Jazzman Stanley Clarke will pick up an honorary degree from the University of the Arts at tomorrow's inauguration of president Sean T. Buffington. Clarke - a UArts grad (Philadelphia Musical Academy, actually) - will appear tonight with the university's alumni big band in a double bill opened by Rennie Harris and his Puremovement group.

Restaurateur Stephen Starr hosted actor/comedian Robert Wuhl and his 13-year-old goddaughter for lunch Tuesday at Alma de Cuba. Starr, who booked Wuhl years ago at his club Star's, said the two were on a tour of ballparks.

Actors Luke Wilson and David Koechner, starring in the film Tenure shooting on the Main Line, impressed staff at Radnor's Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen on Tuesday with prodigious food intake, including a dumpling sampler, branzino and filet.

A madhouse ensued Saturday at the Latvian Society at Seventh and Spring Garden Streets as smoke began wafting through Azuka Theatre's rehearsal of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The minor blaze, started by an upstairs tenant who had left a candle burning, was quickly extinguished. Scary, yes, according to director Kevin Glaccum, but also humorous. Star Dito van Reigersberg - who plays an East German transgender singer fronting a rock band - chose not to shed high heels as he fled.

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Contact columnist Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/michaelklein and http://go.philly.com/foodanddrinq.