This year’s Olympia Film Festival features a daily dose of good old Oly-style activism, fed via film. Activism films begin today with spoken word activist Suheir Hammad and journalist Dahr Jamail jawing about their efforts to make the world a more peaceful place.

Today’s Festival Films: Includes documentary on the Rat City Roller Girls.

Also on local screens
“American Gangster”: Notorious drug dealer’s rise and domination of New York drug trade is fascinating.

New York International Children's Film Festival: It’s at the Grand, baby!

MORE FILMS: On local screens today.

Celebrating Day of the Dead in grand community style, the Tacoma Art Museum caps a month of events with a free community celebration today from noon to 5 p.m. at the Museum.

Held in conjunction with Centro Latino, the festival celebrates Dia de los Muertos with traditional music and dance, food, art activities, sugar skull decoration, and displays of art that include a traditional Tapete, or sand painting, and community altars honoring passed loved ones, as well as student artwork demonstrations.

This family friendly event brings together cultural iconography with activities that bring to light how a grim subject can be celebrated â€" and enjoyed â€" by all ages, inviting conversation about loss, remembrance, and the rich fabric of diversity. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

[Tacoma Art Museum, Sunday, Nov. 4, noon to 5 p.m., free, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

Friday night I managed to extricate myself from a wounded mate (who’d had recent shoulder surgery, which seems to be an epidemic these days â€" everyone’s having it, just had it, or getting over it, it seems) I sat in at the AMOCAT awards and saw the glitterati of Tacoma arts society, including the Victory Music folk, beautiful Beautiful Angle dudes, and huge Swarner contingent (represent!) as well as the regular faces you know and love, like Traci Kelley greeting at the gate, Amy McBride trying (in vain) to “blend” and the Avilas and Zmoleks looking hipster cool. 

It was gratifying to me, to see such a politically well-supported arts community kicking off such a successful campaign (Art at Work month) with the backing of faces I recognized, even coming from such far reaches as Seattle.

Now that’s impressive.

On my way home after an urgent message from the pained dude, I saw the last of the Day of the Dead procession on Sixth Avenue â€" I Starskey and Hutch-parked into a not quite legal space, and made my way up to the Masa deck, open and fairly full â€" to say hey to friends Lia Craven, Di Morgan-Graves, Claudia Riedener, Dave Lisieki holding one of the oddest violin things I’ve ever seen, and numerous other friends whose names I know and can never remember.

Blasted 38.5 year old brains.

Sounds like the procession was a big success, with new faces showing up â€" and even a Vashon Island contingent! â€" I loved seeing the completed mermaid Morgan-Graves was working on at the papier mache workshop, as well as a fabulous boatâ€"complete with lantern and dead fisherman â€" and Riedener’s fabulously bright homage to the salmon.

Fun times, but I had to dash, as a man in pain needed my help with our daughter.
The man in pain, apparently drugged on Percocet, and sleeping kid had no more need for me by the time I arrived, though I had much need for sleep â€" the next day would be long.

We started off with swimming lessons for wee one at the Y, after which we dashed off to the new Tacoma Art Place to drop off some arts and crafts items I’d put together, which I’d been hording for years, promising to use at some point.

That point hadn’t come yet, so I decided it’d be much nicer for these items to add to the cooperative energy in the Tacoma Art Place, where the kid and I saw a great crowd milling, locals and arts crowd young and old mixing with big smiles as they created cool quilted postcards and even â€" thank you Ms Darling! â€" a tooth fairy pouch for the tooth the wee one lost as we walked into the action.  Jaime Chase taught some knitting, Theresa Owens worked some beads that rocked the kid’s world, and a very well-attended acrylic painting class all worked to focus some attention, though the space itself was so filled with vitality and action it nearly made my head spin in a giddy joy.

Linda Danforth was on-hand, beaming, to see the fruits of her idea, and the cooperative efforts of many hard workers and donors, come to fruition, and it was just a great way to spend an afternoon, soaking in the vibrance that creativity can bring to a community.

As there’s no rest for the weary (or is that wicked?) the kid and I had places to go and things to do â€" the next stop was the Bead Factory to make her a special bracelet that we’d been promising for weeks; after that, it was home again, eat quickly, and off to an artsy fun party Jennevieve Sclemmer and Trevor Redfern were hosting.

Fun times, wrapped up in fabulous food and a kitchsy theme (50 years in space!) were the context in which I met up again with Seattle artist Barbara, and met new Seattle artist friend Antoinette, while Abby played hide-the-stars with lovely lovely guests and two super cool astronauts with the last name Lisieki.

The wee one started to fade â€" I have to say, after such a long day, me too â€" so we were home again, home again.

Today’s fun and games include the Dia de los Muertos event at the TAM, as well as a trip to the Opera.  The kid will go to the former, but not the latter with me, and you know I’ll be here to tell about it.

Good thing there’s that extra hour today! â€" Jessica Corey Butler

FILM
“American Gangster”
Apart from the detail that he was a heroin dealer, Frank Lucas’ career would be an ideal case study for a business school. “American Gangster” tells his success story. Inheriting a crime empire from his famous boss, Bumpy Johnson, he cornered the New York drug trade with admirable capitalist strategies. He personally flew to Southeast Asia to buy his product directly from the suppliers, used an ingenious importing scheme to get it into the United States, and sold it at higher purity and lower cost than anyone else was able to. At the end, he was worth more than $150 million and got a reduced sentence by cutting a deal to expose three-quarters of the NYPD narcotics officers as corrupt. And he always took his mom to church on Sunday. Four Stars. â€" Roger Ebert

[AMC Narrows Plaza 8: 2, 5:15, 8:30; Century Olympia: noon, 1:40, 3:25, 5:10, 7, 8:40, 10:20; Lakewood Cinema 15: 11:40 a.m., 12:10, 1, 3, 3:40, 4:40, 6:30, 7, 8, 10, 10:30; Lakewood Towne Center 12: 12:20, 3:40, 7, 10:25; Longston Place 14: 11:45 a.m., 12:15, 12:45, 3:15, 3:40, 4:10, 6:45, 7:15, 8, 10:15, 10:40; Regal Gig Harbor 3: 3:50, 7:10; Regal Martin Village 16: 11:45 a.m., 12:15, 1, 3:15, 3:45, 4:45, 6:40, 7:10, 8:30, 10:10, 10:40; Yelm Cinemas @ Prairie Park: 12:20, 3:35, 6:50.

OLYMPIA FILM FESTIVAL: Today’s schedule.

MORE FILM: Playing on local screens.

NAKED CITY
A Town Hall with Gov. Chris Gregoire
Gov. Gregoire invites the public to share its thoughts on state issues. While Bobble Tiki is all for town hall meetings, he’s not crazy about the public.  More than once he’s found himself standing in line at Safeway amazed that the very people who can keep such long strings of lottery numbers in their heads are utterly befuddled by bankcard machines.  He’s not sure he wants them dealing with his state issues. â€" Bobble Tiki 

[Stadium High School, 6:30 p.m., free, 111 N. E St., Tacoma]

Driving up to the Tacoma Art Museum brought a beautiful sight to my eyes: people, all around Pacific Avenue, throngs of them, crossing to the TAM to take part in the Dia de los Muertos community event that’s becoming a seasonal must-do on par with a Christmas viewing of the "Nutcracker."

The wee one wasn’t much interested in the events on stage, though I wanted to stop and listen to traditional music. Instead, she grabbed me by the hand and dragged me up the stairs to the very crowded second level.  In one room, treats like Pan Muerto begged to be nibbles, while the altars by many groups invited large groups to view them.  My own favorite was the altar tribute to a mother; I became teary as people, invited to jot down the names of mothers they would like remembered, did just that, and added those names to the altar.

I wanted to stop and look at the altars longer, but the kid had an agenda, and it was all about sugar.

We joined the crush in the art room and ran into friends Chiara, Kate, and Asa; we stopped to decorate a sugar skull, inspired by the sparkling, glittering, festive skulls around us, and then wandered the gallery spaces.

It was the kind of fun afternoon I’d have liked to stay longer for, but more death beckoned, French opera style.

Dropping the wee one off at Grandma’s, I headed to the Rialto to see the Tacoma Opera staging of Offenbach’s "Orpheus in the Underworld," and had the time of my life.

I didn’t expect the opera to be the place where I’d laugh so hard tears would stream, or that I’d have random acts of smiling happening faster than I could count. 

Sure, the music was delightful, and impressive given that nearly half of the characters were making their Tacoma Opera debut.  More, it was the costuming that gave me the giggles, with Pluto (an impressive Jared Rogers, coiffed similarly to Disney’s version of Pluto in Hercules,) and his mini-dress stealing the show, largely due to the red Converse high tops he wore.  Mercury’s impressively silver Cons were equally scene-stealing, but I think the real gut buster and end of all pretense of operatic decorum for me was the transformation of Jupiter (Barry Johnson) into a fly; black tights and black ballet slippers were effective enough, given Johnson’s more operatic than athletic physique, but when you added the tight fitting black cap and glittery eyes that looked like the bra head-dresses in Weird Science, it made for a delightfully funny appearance.  Enhanced by the buzz-buzz song performed with Eurydice (Holly Boaz), the whole scene was the inspiration for much laughter all around the theater.

I got the wee one and headed home with a good feeling, the tired but happy equivalent to a belly full of good food.

Mmmm, Tacoma: you make the topic of death fun! â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

Tacoma’s Top Heavy Crush will join Seether and 99.9 KISW air staff band The New Originals for KISW’s Holiday Hangover Ball Friday, Dec. 7 at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. The $30 tickets go on sale Saturday, Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster outlets. â€" Brad Allen

Christmas is here!

There’s no time to consider the essence of Thanksgiving, or ponder the Christmas fate of the less fortunate, or reflect on consumerism run amok â€" not when the first Christmas tree lot has been erected.

The Broken News Team spotted the Local Boys’ lot in the Kmart parking lot along Sixth Avenue in Tacoma.  Everyone hurry!  Time is running out. Pack the kids into the Land Rover, find a parking place and run the mall obstacle course. Get those gifts wrapped and stand in the post office line for an hour to send Grandma her annual box of bric-a-brac.

You have been warned. â€" Suzy Stump

Our Broken News Team brings you headlines and follow-up whenever we please on the stories our community couldn’t care less about. Broken news is posted on this blog several hours or days after it happens, with unusual updates.

Carrie Brownstein, former guitarist for the band Sleater-Kinney, writes a blog on NPR Music titled Monitor Mix. She offers “meditations for music fans, curmudgeons and recovering hipsters.” â€" Brad Allen

FILM
Kung Fu Movie Night
Swanky 21 Commerce Restaurant & Martini Bar has seen creative changes under General Manager Danno Rankin, who also runs The Loft Nightclub. The newest addition to 21’s roster of good times is Kung Fu Night on Tuesdays beginning tonight. The 9 p.m. bang of a gong kicks off the showing of three different Kung Fu movies a night â€" old Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee flicks to “Five Deadly Venoms” and “Chinese Super Ninja” â€" all played on large, flat screen TVs around the joint.

There’s no cover charge, so throw back $2 beers, pound the table for $2 sake bombs, and then grip your barstool for $3 Tokyo Teas, a spin-off on the Long Island with just as much booze and a dash of Midori liqueur.

They know you eat, too. Devour mouthwatering Manila clams in pancetta herb white wine broth, seared duck breast or pork loin from 21’s Northwest, Mediterranean and French inspired menu. â€" Jennifer Johnson

[21 Commerce, 9 p.m., no cover, corner of Commerce and 21st Street, downtown Tacoma, 253.272.6278, www.21martinis.com]

OLYMPIA FILM FESTIVAL: Today’s schedule.

MORE FILM: Playing on local screens.

JAM
Billy Farmer
Billy Farmer runs the musical gamut.  A gifted guitar player, Farmer plays acoustic with a folk style, electric in a Chicago blues stomp style and knows his way around the Delta, too.  His arsenal of strings includes a reliable 12 string, Dobro, mandolin and banjo. When he needs a little oomph, Farmer plugs in his Les Paul or Stratocaster. Farmer is a master of mimicry and can imitate everyone from Jagger to Cash.  Farmer leads the Tacos & Jams Open Mic tonight. â€" Tony Engelhart

[O’Callahan’s, 7:30 p.m., no cover, 15610 92nd St., KPN Key Center, 253.884.9766]

MORE MUSIC: In the clubs tonight.

Some of the finest people I know live in Tacoma. A few select individuals I like to call my best friends. There's the KAke, Gayle Selden (G-love), and BanditoBetty. They have seen me do some pretty horrid things, and yet they still want to hang out with me. Suckers.

Recently, BanditoBetty and I decided to throw down a few at Paddy Coyne's. It was after a Tacoma Beer Society meeting, and apparently we thought we hadn't had enough. It was to the point where I had to pee every 10 minutes. That's right, I had uncorked.

I had plenty of toilet time, and plenty of time for thinking on the toilet.

Paddy Coyne's pumps voices of Irish comedians throughout its bathrooms. I really have NO idea what the F they are saying, but whatever it is, that Irish audience laughs and laughs and laughs.

Then I started thinking about how the stereotypical Irishman likes to fight. The Fighting Irish, right? Then I started thinking about fights involving me.

I've been in one physical fight. That was in the seventh-grade, and it was with Heather Few. I stood on my Texas history book and punched her in the stomach. She was taller. The Texas History book was damn thick. Here's to history.

The rest of my fights have been very verbal. I like to let the profanity flow when I am in a heated argument. It's no holds barred with cuss words. I like to use the C-word, and it especially pisses guys off when a woman calls them a pussy. Trust me, you'll win an argument every time if you pull that P-word weapon out.
Sometimes my husband is my partner in fights. I start them and he sticks up for me. Now don't go thinking I'm off with a loose mouth just starting useless bar brawls. It's not like that at all. These are just times that I've had enough of certain things, and I can't keep my mouth shut. Let's just say I stick up for the little man.

And no, I'm not talking about the little people.

I used to work for a childcare facility. One day it was a teacher in-service, so we had 50 kids for the entire day playing in the actual elementary school. On full days we would rent bounce houses, sing, play games, and do art. I'm telling you, it was a BLAST.

This one time at childcare, while the kids waited in line for the bounce house, I kept them occupied with a game. They were really into the game and cheering each other on. Apparently this irritated the janitor. He started yelling at the kids, telling them to shut up, and yelling at me. I was appalled and immediately became angry. I took him outside, out of kid earshot, and read him the riot act. My husband just happened to be pulling up to have lunch with us and overheard us. He jumped in and went after the janitor as well. It was a time when we were watching a lt of Sopranos,and my husband, being Italian, well, I think he thought he should be Tony Soprano. He yelled Soprano speak.

I think to this day, I am still banned from that elementary school. it's nothing to be ashamed of. Just means I did my job scaring the janitor.

As I open the wooden door to my bathroom stall, admire the Irish decor, wash my hands, dry them on paper towels, and throw them away in the trash located conveniently next to the door (FINALLY a smart bathroom), I brace myself for another round of beer with BanditoBetty. Hopefully with no fights.¬" Steph DeRosa