It was about 9:30 p.m., during a Chris Thile set, that I decided to wander about Wintergrass, and see what everyone was up to.  Good thing I left the Pavilion when I did.  At the elevator I ran into a certain Texas band member, who in a drunken rant, proceeded to tell me of a “rockin” party in their suite.  Curiosity consumed me, and after grabbing one last brew, I headed up.  Hey, who wouldn’t want to see what it’s like to party with a bluegrass band?

The elevator opened and surprisingly, people were everywhere.  They were leaning against walls playing guitars, and some other stringed instruments.  There were so many, I didn’t pretend that I could tell them apart.  Plus, I may have had one too many cold coffees, if ya’ know what I mean. 

They were gracious hosts and fed me plenty of beer and carrots, a little strange, but tasty.  They even stopped a random guy from trying to pee out the window, which he couldn’t get open.  Now that could’ve been messy.

I wandered back downstairs in time to catch a bit of Hot Buttered Rum in the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel Ballroom, but I missed Tim O’Brien. 

Son of a hillbilly!! 

Luckily, I have two chances to catch him tonight, plus I’m stoked to see Crooked Still. 

Overall, the evening was a success.  I saw some great bands (The Greencards, Jerry Douglas), and drank so much that I was home in bed by 1 a.m.  I finally got to play an instrument, after a band member trusted me with his mandolin. 

Victory is mine! â€" Julie Jordan

Contemplate if you will â€" and as you most likely have â€" your past Oscar experiences. Lonely.  Nachos with not enough cheese. Asleep on the couch before the Best Original Screenplay winners are named. Wake up, little starlet! You can endure the four-hour show by exchanging snarky comments in a genuine, old-fashioned movie theater. The Grand Cinema hosts an Academy Awards Party Sunday at the Rialto Theater in downtown Tacoma.  The party will begin at 5 p.m. with the preshow telecast of nominees walking down the red carpet, in which otherwise talented people such as Hillary Swank and Leonardo DiCaprio engage in inane chatter with an inane host. Ellen DeGeneres will then emcee the awards show. Hey, she sure is a nice gal.  There will be a raffle, silent auction and prizes.  And you. â€" Suzy Stump

[Rialto Theater, Sunday, Feb. 25, doors at 4 p.m., $12-$15 includes appetizers, dessert and a cash bar with beer, wine and soft drinks, 310 S. Ninth, downtown Tacoma, 253.572.6062]

Following a national search which involved critical review of more than a dozen candidates to replace Judy Cullen after she left the theater, Tacoma Little Theatre announce today the appointment of David Duvall as its new artistic director. 

In addition to the new top dog at TLT, the theatre also announced it has strategically restructured its leadership hierarchy so that Duvall will partner with existing Business Director Corinna Chapo to jointly manage the 88-year-old institution.

Duvall a native of Bellevue and comes to Tacoma Little Theatre with more than 30 years in professional theatre and more than 250 productions to his credit. 

He has performed in various capacities with such companies as The Montana Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Eastside Theatre Company, Tacoma Actor’s Guild, Evergreen Theatre Company, Studio East, Tacoma Little Theatre, ACT in Seattle, Western Washington University, Western Theatre Summer Stock and American Revue Theatre, where he served as founding artistic director for four years. 

“I am elated to have this opportunity to serve Tacoma’s theatrical community as well as the community at large," Duvall stated.  "In my 10 years of working at TLT, I have truly grown to love Tacoma, our audiences and particularly the enormously talented people who appear on the TLT stage.  To watch them grow and blossom, over and over, is truly a thrill for me! I’m looking forward to what we will all create together in the coming years.” 

Chapo is a native to the Seattle area and has been employed as the theater’s business director for more than a year.  She brings with her ten years of financial planning with local retailer Eddie Bauer and has served as senior marketing manager at local candy manufacturer Brown & Haley. â€" Steve Dunkelberger

I took the wee one to "MOVE!" for the first time â€" hers, not mine.

Having gone to all the other "MOVE!" dance productions, there was no way I would miss this one, and since the evening show started at 8, I couldn’t really drag the kid Friday night.  But Saturday’s 2 p.m. matinee was too perfect an opportunity to go share something I loved with my kid.

She was riveted (as was I, truth be told.)

Once again, "MOVE!" was a great compilation of creative expression, with a few stand-out treats thrown in for us to appreciate: the introductory film, a five minute piece by Tacoma’s own TV 12, showed the striped back of the wee one herself, enjoying herself at an MLKBallet class, and the following piece, “The Breaking” by The Can-Can Castaways of the Seattle Pike Place Market’s Can-Can Kitchen and Cabaret had a  toy-box feel to it that brought my kid immediately into the moment.

“Pendulum” by the Tacoma Dance Collective, showed the sinuous-strong talents of Lynn Wilmot-Stenehjeman, whom my daughter recognized from when she took dance classes at the YMCA, in collaboration with Trina Doss, Kristi Hoke, Robin Jaeklein, Mary Mabry, Laura Miltner. 

“Stella Alone,” a film by Christiana Axelson danced by Heather Budd, showed the kinds of fun you could have with heaps of clothes, a fridge and oven, and a rooftop (don’t try this at home, kids!)

Then “Moon” from the Selfick Ng-Simancas & Co delighted Miss thing â€" though the headdress on Ng-Simancas, designed by Lisa Fruichantie spooked my kid at first, seeing her teacher Kate in dancer-mode gave her inspiration.  The intensity and multimedia dimension of this piece (film was projected behind the dancers) created an involving dis-ease that reminded me of films like Farewell My Concubine, a fact that I appreciated as I read, in the program, that the intent was for the piece to evolve into a Chinese opera style ballet.

My last happy surprise was seeing former intrepid Volcano intern Jessie Fouts with her group of co-dancers from the School of the Arts.  This dance, “The Hunt,” captured the intensity of a hunt in nature, tigers versus Zebras.

I was impressed.

All the dancers impressed us, as did the show’s construction.  I loved seeing the poetic geometry and physical skill, and loved feeling swept away by the action on the stage. 
More, I loved knowing that the group sitting with us were helping to support MLKBallet, since proceeds go toward the free ballet school that brings such an amazing art form to people who might consider it “boring.”

See a "MOVE!" show and I guarantee, that “B” word won’t enter your vocabulary. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

The darkened room at the Art House had lights focused in on the speaker at the mic. Behind her the trumpet and guitar created a moody ambiance that enhanced the words she uttered.
It wasn’t the typical jazz-tinged spoken word gig, however: when Skie Bender read selections from her book, "The Knife Beneath My Shirt," the experimental sounds emitted from Kevin Jacobs, on guitar and Jason Gutz, on trumpet flowed like sometimes murky water under words that jutted like rocks.

Sections read from sketched the building relationship the protagonist has with India, the mutilated crow she’s s rehabilitating, as well as the relationship the protagonist has as a five year-old with her aunt, as well as with nature; one section develops the nearly consumptive relationship the protagonist has with her art.

The whole evening â€" the readings, the sentiments, and the musical backdrop flowed like best of rivers, ebbing and building up and oddly soothing as the evening progressed.

Jacobs, who will have a showing of his collage works through March at Café Vitta, seemed impressed by the large turnout for the event, comparing it favorably to the publishing parties he and Bender would throw in Los Angeles.

Bender herself, signing books for throngs of approving people, seemed gracious and appreciative of all the positivity around her.

Fun moment for me: seeing the Volcano prominently displayed with Bender’s other novellas and a live Fire Ants CD.

If you missed the event â€" fie on you! You can get your book through here. â€" Jessica Corey Butler

Somebody pinch me: Tacoma feels like a real city.

Granted, it feels like a real city most of the time, to me, but with Wintergrass going on there are actual people walking around Commerce, Broadway, Fawcett, and all the connecting streets in downtown Tacoma.  Parking isn’t entirely fun, but you have to overlook that particular negative and just dwell on the vibe that you can see, hear, and smell in the streets.

Go into the Sheraton and it’s a particularly loud vibe, with more smiles per capita than I can remember seeing; the open areas are alive with the sounds of music, extemporaneous jam bands break out like pimples on a teen-ager’s face on the morning of prom, but with much better results. 

In the downstairs lobby alone I counted six different hastily-assembled groups picking and strumming their way through chord progressions; I saw age ranges from 7 to 85; I heard the percussive thrum of instruments as varied as the skins on banjos to harmonicas to upright basses on down to a metal bucket contraption with a stick and a bungee.

It felt like Appalachia, it felt like middle America, and it felt like an awfully good time. 

One hotel employee had a bit of a sour expression on his mug as he picked up trash left behind; yet another employee had a broad smile as she smoked a cigarette outdoors.

Asked how she liked having all the people underfoot, she replied, “I love it!” 

I had to agree. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

The Night Tacoma Danced is not for everybody, believe me. It is only meant for those of you who like to eat a variety of yummy food, enjoy a lot of fine entertainment, appreciate good art and are willing to have fun to support programs for kids.

Sounds like a horrible way to spend a Saturday, eh?

The Tacoma Art Museum's largest fund raiser of the year, The Night Tacoma Danced, er, dances into the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center March 3 as an "European Cabaret: Where Dreams and Reality Converge."  Yep, that's the theme of this year's black tie gala so those with enough dough to get in might want to throw on a few feather bows and sequins.

I've held the arm of many of these Night Tacoma Danced galas, dining on fine fare, participating in the silent auction, grabbing an item or two in the artisan marketplace, which boasts 300 pieces this year.  Lovely, really.  However, this year's live auction, music by the Kim Archer Band and free salon on site additions has inspired me to fine a finer date.  My dude, I mean, my gentlemen has been encourage to bid me a tan.

Proceeds from the event will go into the pocket of TAM's educational department.  The museum's educational program is a great cause â€" it keeps the little snot-noses out of sight and out of mind while I check out the "Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon" exhibit. â€" Suzy Stump

[Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, Saturday, March 3, 7 p.m., $175-$250 per person with the box office closing March 1 at 6 p.m., 1500 Broadway, 253.272.4258]

One of Bobble Tiki's favorite rock musician names is guitarist He Who Cannot Be Named, who for a while played in the Dwarves. He Who, as he was often called, once faked his own death, to the chagrin of the band's record label, Sub Pop, which promptly sacked the band.

Check out the Dwarves tonight at Hell's Kitchen. â€" Bobble Tiki

Harvey Danger is taking 2007 off from live shows to work on new material (unless it's a really really good offer).

Don't know if you can use that info at all, but there it is. â€" Brad Allen

Is the Tacoma Health Department putting the kibosh on Art Walk/Night on the Town fun?

Possibly, though the Weekly Volcano has not yet heard from representatives of the health department, our friend Julia Russell from Metropolitan Vet brought this:

“Some recent not-so-good news for the Art Walk/Night on the Town venues: the Health
Dept (and state liquor control board) have issued us big no-no's for serving (non-compliant) chow and (non-licensed) hooch at our events. If we want to keep in compliance, it's juice boxes and packages of pretzels from here on out. I'm fearful that the 100th Monkey venue may be their next target!

I think it's a real blow to the arts community, as well as to the downtown core who are trying to build up their businesses.”

All I can say in response is, Meep! â€" Jessica Corey-Butler