Diana Arens has been a fixture on KAOS 89.3 FM since 1991. Her show, “Free Things Are Cool,” is a mix of live and recorded music by some of the Northwest’s most influential and acclaimed artists. Folks such as Elliott Smith, Beck, Wanda Jackson, and Bikini Kill have all appeared on Arens’ show. And the list goes on. Modest Mouse, Heavens To Betsy, Kimya Dawson, Jonathan Richman, Crispin Glover, Stuart Murdoch before Belle and Sebastian, and historian Howard Zinn.

Her last show is tonight at 9 p.m.  She’s leaving KAOS to pursue writing projects and a little thing she likes to call sleep.

Tonight, she will be joined by a sampling of guests who have been on the show in the past â€" Christine Corey
, Jenny Jenkins, 
Calvin Johnson
, Jenn Kliese
, James Maeda, 
Lois Maffeo
, The Mona Reels, Sara Peté
, Quitty
, and Guy Sands. â€" Andras Jones

LINK: Weekly Volcano interview with Arens.

The past couple of years in Tacoma, city planners, neighborhood activists, and assorted bureaucrats have discussed density and streetscaping, development, play areas, retail, parks and parking. They talked about the new development's sense of scale and character.

What about the property owners? How do these people shape the direction of our community?

Coffee and Rhetoric, Tacoma’s live talk show at Cutter Point Coffee in downtown Tacoma, will hold downtown Tacoma and Sixth Avenue property owners accountable for their actions tomorrow night. Well, at least the show will give them a soap box.

As always, discussions are open ended and audience members are encouraged to participate in and direct the conversation. â€" Michael Swan

[Cutter Point Coffee, Thursday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m., no cover, 1936 Pacific Ave., Tacoma]

MUSIC
DJs at La Fondita
What: The Mexican restaurant in Tacoma’s Proctor District hosts DJs Lulu Spice, Mr. Clean, and PY in its lounge.
Why: DJs in Proctor!  Take that Stadium District!
When: Friday, Jan. 25, 10 p.m.
Where: La Fondita, 2620 N. Proctor St., Tacoma.

ART/MUSIC
“ReMix”
What: Check Please (Jesse Quitslund and Drew Schot) perform during a reception for Mindy Barker’s mini art show, “ReMix.”
Why: It’s for those with minimal space but a gigantic need for art.
When: Saturday, Jan. 26, 6- 9 p.m.
Where: Black Water Cafe, 747 S. Fawcett, Tacoma.

The Top of Tacoma Bar (3529 McKinley Ave.) just passed their final health department inspection (congratulations!), and they'll officially open a cozy, walk-in cafe on Feb. 4 (in the former Big Nick's Pizza location) that will serve the bar via a cut-though window (until 2 a.m. eventually) and those who want take out for lunch and dinner.

This cafe will offer items like home-made soups, tasty salads, cheese plates, baguettes and the like. Even better, owner Jaime Kay Newton will be making awesome monster tacos for the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 as a nice little cafe kickoff.

I'll be sure to sample the menu soon and report back to you fancy readers through your regular Scene of the Crime connection. The Eastside loves Jaimie K and Jason J. Jones for this contribution that's bringing life back to our business district. â€" Natasha

Amy Alkon drags people, kicking, screaming, and laughing, out of their misery with her advice column Advice Goddess, which runs in the Weekly Volcano.  Below are this week's lost souls.

My girlfriend of four years is sweet, smart and sexy, in a vanilla kind of way, but I’ve never felt passionate about her. We’re both grad students and we were getting sick of our respective roommates. My girlfriend wanted to move our relationship forward, and found us a great deal on a rental, but we had to act immediately. Although I had misgivings, it seemed too hard to say no, so I signed the lease. Now, I realize it was a mistake. I’ve wasted my 20s with a nice but boring girl. I want to get out, meet more women, and live a little, but the lease complicates everything. I’d be leaving her not only heartbroken but unable to pay the rent and needing to get a roommate. I’d sort of like to stay roommates with her and be able to date other people, but I know that’d never fly.  â€" Supremely Stuck

AMY: There are all these things you really want to believe: like, that you can lose 40 pounds on the Deep-Fried Twinkie Diet, gain three inches from a pill some guy in Romania is hawking over the Internet, and that the shifty guy behind 7-Eleven will sell you a brand-new Wii for $100 â€" not a slightly used brick in a brand-new Wii box.

Click here for the rest of Amy’s answer.

Kiss and wake up
Two months ago, I went hiking with this girl I volunteer with. I kissed her, and she said she had a boyfriend, but she didn’t stop kissing me. We now spend lots of time together, especially considering her boyfriend, who’s not always her favorite person. Sometimes we kiss, sometimes it gets a little more heated. Do I back off? Move on in? Continue as I have been? â€" Conflicted

AMY: Lucky for you, you’re a man, not a supermarket, or you’d be out of business within the month.

Click here for the rest of Amy’s answer.

STAGE
“Under a Mantle of Stars”
Harlequin Production’s “Under a Mantle of Stars” is a show that can best be described by what it is not. It is not a run-of-the-mill play. It is not linear. It is not for theatergoers who don’t want to think. It is not a play that has traditional characters, a traditional plot or a traditional structure.

It’s a play that makes theatergoers ask: “What did I just see?” It’s great, but it really can’t be described. At its core, the show is about a man and his wife and their teen-age foster child in 1948 when they have a sudden visit by two visitors. The travelers have happened across the isolated country mansion after coming close to running out of gas. Little do they know what they have stumbled into, when each of the residents believes the travelers are people from their past rather than the escaped jewel thieves they are. â€" Steve Dunkelberger

[State Theater, 8 p.m., $24-$33, 202 Fourth Ave E., Olympia, 360.786.0151, www.harlequinproductions.org]

MULTI-MEDIA
“Mosca and the Meaning of Life”
“Mosca and the Meaning of Life” is a ground breaking multi-media work where an animated character is grabbed off the screen and integrated into performance art. 
Award-winning animator Christine Panushka and performance artist Beto Araiza hooked up in Pasadena to redefine their respective disciplines.

And they did.  Pretty cool. â€" Suzy Stump

[The Evergreen State College Experimental Theater, 7 p.m., $5-$10, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W., Olympia, 360.867.6833]

MORE THEATER: On local stages today.

FOLK
Charlotte Thistle
A true folkie, Thistle works solo with an acoustic guitar, and as an artist she ranks up there with Ani di Franco, but isn’t quite so abrasive. This is not to say she’s all fluff and no substance as she can get political and speak out on such topics as war and social injustices, but she does so with an incredible wit.

Thistle has no agenda or goals to sell a billion albums; she just wants to sing her songs. It is with this humble mindset she has garnered such fabulous press and has won over so many fans in the Northwest. Her 2005 debut, A Girl With a Guitar, was a thought provoking and insightful recording, which critics salivated over. With simplicity in her music and complexity in her lyrics, she did a balancing act between the two with candor, humor and intelligence. â€" Tony Engelhart

[A Rhapsody in Bloom Florist and Café, 7 p.m., all ages, no cover, 3709 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.761.7673]

MORE MUSIC: In the clubs tonight.

THE DAILY WORD
Learn it, use it, spell it

Galumph \guh-LUHM(P)F\, intransitive verb:
To move in a clumsy manner or with a heavy tread.

USAGE EXAMPLE: After five or six cocktails, and five or six bacon cheeseburgers, all David Hasselhoff could do was galumph back to his German hotel room.

THE MORNING NEWS

PIERCE COUNTY: Drunk deputy catches a break.

WASHINGTON: Can state's primary create momentum?

SHREVEPORT: 43402, 43403, 4340 … crap! 1, 2, 3, 4. ...

LONDON: Pet girl gets kicked off bus.

HUSTLER OF CULTURE
You can stand atop the mountain and scream your naked desires to the universe or shed that synapse epilepsy and hug the South Sound today with your fellow man:

MUSIC: If you’re into sexed up blues rock, and if you’re anything like Bobble Tiki you’re into anything prefixed with the phrase “sexed up,” then Voxxy Vallejo’s show at Oh! Gallagher’s in Lakewood should be your cup of tea. A tag team, combining the guitar work of Gene Vallejo and the vocal styling of the artist known only as “Voxxy,” Voxxy Vallejo is a band worth familiarizing yourself with. A Thursday night in Lakewood seems like the perfect opportunity to do just that.

MORE MUSIC: What's on tonight.

BAR EXAM: Steph DeRosa visits King Solomon’s Reef.

THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN
Bobble Tiki is a fan of Masa restaurant and its owner John Xitco. “House Blend Thursdays,” which will bring big name music to Masa’s cozy confines every week begins Thursday, Jan. 31, with a performance by Jason Webley and Handful of Luvin’.  Check out the details here.

Breakfast with Bobble Tiki runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  Deal with it.

We here at the Weekly Volcano sometimes fantasize about the olden days, when robbing a financial institution or gold caring railcar was a possibility. Sometimes we fantasize about going on lavish spending sprees with all our make-believe loot. However, we’re not dim-witted or delusional here at the Weekly Volcano. We’ve watched enough Court TV to know bank robbers almost always get caught. Plus, we hate the idea of being sodomized in prison.

An example of the futility of modern day bank robbery occurred this morning, around 9:15 a.m., when a lone white male robbed the KeyBank in the 3900 block of North 26^th Street armed with a semi-automatic handgun. (Note: In the Volcano’s fantasy’s we don’t use guns to rob banks. We’re like MacGyver.) Wearing a mask, he pointed the gun at a KeyBank teller and demanded money. Once he had what he was after, he fled on foot to his vehicle, dropping his pistol along the way. Not long later, the gun, the vehicle, and the suspect were apprehended by police.

The suspect was booked into the Pierce County Jail. â€" Matt Driscoll

ART
“Renoir as Printmaker”
For Pierre-Auguste Renoir, etching and lithographs were an adjunct to painting, and although some of the works in Tacoma Art Museum’s “Renoir as Printmaker: The Complete Works, 1876-1912” are highly finished, most are sketchy, and the many variations on a few themes indicate that he also used printmaking as a way of experimenting with different solutions to aesthetic problems.

Drawn from a local private collection, this exhibition comprises the complete known collection of Renoir’s graphic art, and it will be shown exclusively at Tacoma Art Museum. It includes 25 etchings and 35 lithographs. In addition to the many nudes and studies of children at play, there are many portraits of Renoir’s children and of his artist friends. Among the portraits are one of Berthe Morisot, one of Paul Cezanne, and a rather stern portrait of the composer Richard Wagner.

Getting this show in Tacoma is a real coup. â€" Alec Clayton

[Tacoma Art Museum, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $6.50-$7.50, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258, www.TacomaArtMuseum.org].

MORE ART: Inside local galleries and museums.

BOOK
“Tacoma’s Proctor District”
Two of Tacoma’s Proctor District businesses, Culpepper Books and The Pacific Northwest Shop, are hosting receptions and book signings tonight, featuring the authors of a recently published book on the district. The twin events are set from 6-8 p.m.

“Tacoma’s Proctor District” is among the latest releases from Arcadia Publishing, which has also published books on Tacoma’s Old Town, the Lakewood, South Tacoma communities and the waterfront, among others. The current title was a joint effort by Tacoma residents Caroline Gallacci and Bill Evans.

[The Pacific Northwest Shop, Bill Evans’ reception, 6-8 p.m., 2720 N. Proctor, Tacoma, 253.752.2242]
[Culpepper Books, Caroline Gallacci’s reception, 6-8 p.m., 2521 N. Proctor, Tacoma, 253.752.2242]

THE STAGE
“Urinetown”
“Urinetown” is a show that Tacoma Musical Playhouse’s main ticket buyers, I would think, might shy away from just because of the title. It is too bad, since the show is a fun work that isn’t as vulgar as the title suggests. It simply deals with a fictional city that has a drought so severe that all private toilets are outlawed and a private company holds the single contract on all the potties in the city. Prices go up and the people revolt against the monopoly on toilets. â€" Steve Dunkelberger

[Narrows Theater, through Feb. 3, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 2 and 8 p.m. Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, $16-$23, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.565 .6867, www.tmp.org]

MORE THEATER: On local stages tonight.

INDIE POP
Ghosts and Liars
Ghosts and Liars fit into Tacoma’s indie pop scene like an odd colored sweater and an untamed beard. The band’s music, like bittersweet candy with a contemplative aftertaste, is as fresh as it is familiar and well crafted. Ghosts and Liars would fit into any respectable indie rock scene, even a slightly snooty one like Portland’s. Luckily for Tacoma, Ghosts and Liars calls the 253 home.

Continuing a recently impressive string of bookings that has put the Viaduct on the map and the tip of hipsters’ tongues, Ghosts and Liars, along with Garage Voices and Hey Hollywood, will play a show at the all-ages venue on South Tacoma Way this Friday, Jan. 25. Ghosts and Liars are leading the class of indie Tacoma, and the Viaduct is a perfect platform. This is a sure thing. â€" Matt Driscoll

[Viaduct, Ghosts and Liars, Garage Voice, Hey Hollywood, Gazelles, The Globes, 7 p.m., all ages, $8, 5412 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, www.myspace.com/viaductvenue]

MORE MUSIC: Who’s playing tonight.

A Monday night in front of “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” may be hunky-dory for Mrs. John Q. Appleseed, but you, dear friend, demand more from life. You make a serious dent in the business world. You demand your Monday nights to be dynamic, educational, entertaining, and about 90 proof.

FEMM is back and it’s so you. Female Executive Martini Monday kicks off this Monday, Jan. 28 at Woody’s on the Water. Women’s Resource and Business Directory will be the sponsor host â€" the organization that strives to provide fun opportunities to socialize, network, learn and mentor with other businesses and services in the Puget Sound. Women's Resource is credited for such popular events as the monthly Business Network Tours, Wednesdays with Writers, JazzyJune, and Bad Banana on Broadway (not sure about the last one).

Admission is free, and Woody’s will mark down its martinis half-price for FEMM.

To RSVP, e-mail here.