Using AJAX to get content outside the loop

Hey everyone,
I’m installing an AJAX tab using Dynamic Drive (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/ajaxtabscontent/). The script is designed to pull content from different pages that are located in a different folder and not in the WordPress loop. I have it setup on my website (http://controlalttv.net) and click on podcasts. It loads a page from /front/podcasts.php.

The script that I use on that page:

<?php
      $page = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
      query_posts("cat=54&paged=$page&posts_per_page=10"); ?>
    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post();
if ($post->ID == $displayed) continue;?>

<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="posts">
           <div id="info">
           <div class="title_box"></div>
           <div class="titler"><div class="title"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
            <div class="meta">Posted: <?php the_time('l, F j, Y - g:i A') ?> CT</div>
            </div></div>
            <div class="content"><p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p></div>
           </div>
           <?php endwhile; ?>

On the front page (index.php), I get this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_query_var() in /home/gregschu/public_html/CTVgs/front/podcasts.php on line 2

Any ideas on how to fix this? All help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Gregory